College debt meets real life
Living with parents. Struggling to cover medical bills. Abandoning dreams of the perfect job. . . .
"My student debt has made me nervous to take chances," one woman wrote.
"I haven't been able to afford health insurance," said a 2010 graduate of Minnesota State University Moorhead.
"Student debt has deterred me from pursuing many job offers (and passions -- I would love to work with a nonprofit organization assisting veterans) that did not pay enough," said a woman who expects to pay back more than $40,000 in student loan debt over 30 years.
Many students surveyed went straight to graduate school. That decision defers loan payments but eventually adds to them.
"That may not be the best idea in the long term . . . . At least it gives you a little more time. It's especially hard with this job market."
Halfway through, the survey asks: "Looking back, how would you change your college experience, related to finances?"
"I wouldn't have gone," Ezra Kazee answered. Kazee finished his political science degree at Winona State University in 2008. Thanks in part to $300 monthly loan payments, his family lives paycheck to paycheck, he said. "At the end of the day I have mortgaged my life and my children's future for an education that did absolutely nothing for me." He works as a debt collector.
Living with parents. Struggling to cover medical bills. Abandoning dreams of the perfect job. . . .
"My student debt has made me nervous to take chances," one woman wrote.
"I haven't been able to afford health insurance," said a 2010 graduate of Minnesota State University Moorhead.
"Student debt has deterred me from pursuing many job offers (and passions -- I would love to work with a nonprofit organization assisting veterans) that did not pay enough," said a woman who expects to pay back more than $40,000 in student loan debt over 30 years.
Many students surveyed went straight to graduate school. That decision defers loan payments but eventually adds to them.
"That may not be the best idea in the long term . . . . At least it gives you a little more time. It's especially hard with this job market."
Halfway through, the survey asks: "Looking back, how would you change your college experience, related to finances?"
"I wouldn't have gone," Ezra Kazee answered. Kazee finished his political science degree at Winona State University in 2008. Thanks in part to $300 monthly loan payments, his family lives paycheck to paycheck, he said. "At the end of the day I have mortgaged my life and my children's future for an education that did absolutely nothing for me." He works as a debt collector.
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