Some interesting points you make. I had two main interests in college, Botany and Landscape Architecture. I ended up getting the landscape bachelor's degree but went back to grad school to get a Botany master's. I was around halfway through the coursework when I ran out of money, even living out of my car for a bit. It was get a loan or get on with living---I chose the latter after asking myself if I was really suited to sitting in a lab for work, I wasn't, and I had a nice 40 year run owning a design/install landscape construction business. Maybe I'm more practical than others but don't students ask themselves these kinds of questions when getting a loan?
That's probably how it should be, but to be honest, not anymore. I graduated in 2021 with MS in materials science. My total debt burden ended up being below my salary level, which is considered fiscally responsible these days, at least in my opinion.
It is pretty much not cool to not go to college anymore and as long as a college accepts you the student loans are given to anyone so it is really easy. In HS I was not in touch with finances much and while I wanted to save money by going to a state school, I still took on student loans. Other people may be similarly not thinking about the total debt burden, and since undergraduate student debt can be so expensive and the bulk of it, people take it out before they start understanding the fiscal issues it may cause. College costs have inflated substantially and it is more expensive than ever. People do this when they're young and before they realize it's a bad idea and now they are in trouble. Even many millenials and gen x are paying student loans still. There's even stories of social security deductions because of unpaid student loans in the extreme case. But, with inflation, it is only getting worse.
If you've been running a business for 40 years, when you took out student loans, the government wasn't involved. The lender probably wouldn't have given you a loan if they weren't confident you could make income and pay them back. Today, return on investment is clearly not a consideration...
Some interesting points you make. I had two main interests in college, Botany and Landscape Architecture. I ended up getting the landscape bachelor's degree but went back to grad school to get a Botany master's. I was around halfway through the coursework when I ran out of money, even living out of my car for a bit. It was get a loan or get on with living---I chose the latter after asking myself if I was really suited to sitting in a lab for work, I wasn't, and I had a nice 40 year run owning a design/install landscape construction business. Maybe I'm more practical than others but don't students ask themselves these kinds of questions when getting a loan?
That's probably how it should be, but to be honest, not anymore. I graduated in 2021 with MS in materials science. My total debt burden ended up being below my salary level, which is considered fiscally responsible these days, at least in my opinion.
It is pretty much not cool to not go to college anymore and as long as a college accepts you the student loans are given to anyone so it is really easy. In HS I was not in touch with finances much and while I wanted to save money by going to a state school, I still took on student loans. Other people may be similarly not thinking about the total debt burden, and since undergraduate student debt can be so expensive and the bulk of it, people take it out before they start understanding the fiscal issues it may cause. College costs have inflated substantially and it is more expensive than ever. People do this when they're young and before they realize it's a bad idea and now they are in trouble. Even many millenials and gen x are paying student loans still. There's even stories of social security deductions because of unpaid student loans in the extreme case. But, with inflation, it is only getting worse.
If you've been running a business for 40 years, when you took out student loans, the government wasn't involved. The lender probably wouldn't have given you a loan if they weren't confident you could make income and pay them back. Today, return on investment is clearly not a consideration...
It wasn't too hard to get a loan back then either but it also mattered how much: $10K much less problem than $100K.