Student loans.

I'm looking into getting a serious student loan to finish the next two years of school, but have never really asked people about them before, other than basic little facts.

So if you could, please share your horror/success stories about the student loans you have. Have they worked out? What was the process like? Has any of the new legislation affected you? Did you get too much or too little? Etc.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I understand they're pretty different for you guys down there, but there is one golden rule to follow:

Do NOT, EVER, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES take out a large loan to get a degree that doesn't lead to monetary returns. I've never had to borrow a dime, but a ton of my friends have, and I can tell you the split: Those who used the loans to get a degree in professional sectors have had no problems. Graduate a lawyer, a doctor, a pharmacist, a banker etc and you won't have a problem. Drop 25K to be a philosophy major, and you'll never pay it off, because you'll never make enough money.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Finish what you start, cause you still gotta pay it back if you fail/quit.

A friend of mine went to Purdue for a year and I'm pretty sure he's still paying for it cause he went on Airforce ROTC scholarship help, which he also dropped out of. I think he ended up owing around 30k or so. Huzzah for non-resident costs. x_x;

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Do your best to only get subsidized loans from the government. They don't accrue interest while you're in school, have more forgiving alternate payment plans, and are, in general, better to deal with.

I wound up with around $20k in student loans after graduating undergrad. I paid back my only unsubsidized loan a few months after it went into repayment since I worked the nine months before grad school and saved up enough so I wouldn't have to worry about payments while in grad school. I've now got around $15k in loans sitting in deferral, and I plan on paying most of it off as soon as I graduate.

Another rule of thumb is to never take out more money in loans than you should get from your first job.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Just make sure that what you are getting your degree in can land you a well paying job when you graduate that is commensurate to the effort and money you put into earning the degree!

A lot of business jobs and other entry-mid level white collar jobs are drying up at an alarming rate, with many predicting the jobs will only continue being outsourced and likely never come back. If those were the sorts of positions you were hoping to get into once you graduate I would rethink your career choice. Perhaps it may even be better to put college on hold and go in at an entry level position in the industry of your choice now, then finish up your last two years at a later date or part time along side your working.

I'm going on about a year now trying to find a job relevant to my business degree that isn't sales or insurance related. I had to dump my $10k student loan on my parents for the moment as well.

I was speaking idiomatically.

For me, when I finally graduated from university I owed about $28,000. $18000 from student line of credit, and $10,000 from a student loan in which I applied as an independent during my last year of school.

I actually feel pretty happy that I finally paid off all my student loans this summer. My experience with student loans has been a love hate relationship. I couldn't get a normal student loan for my first three years of university because my parents made too much money. For each semester of school, I had $3000. By the time my tuition, student housing, meal plan, and books were paid for. I was lucky to have $100.00 left. For my first three years I was living on a $50 weekly allowance my parents gave me, and once a month they would give me $100 for groceries. It was really tough, not having any funds to go out during the weekend. I had pretty much enough money to catch a film at the theatre, get a snack here and there, or go to the university bar to have a drink or two.

The biggest thing I learned from my student loans is I learned how to manage money pretty quickly. During my fourth year, I managed to get a part time job and that made the finances a little better. It wasn't until my fourth year I managed to enjoy some semblance of university life.

I also felt pretty grateful that I got a degree that had a high employment rate. To be honest if it wasn't for me working out West I would of never gotten this bad boy paid off.

How ya doing, buddy?

I'll just throw it out there because you had an interest, but the job market for lawyers in this country is pretty shit right now. Law graduates have been increasing as available jobs have been declining. With the recession, the major firms cut entry level positions, and deferred the hiring of people they'd already made offers to. The end result is they've got a backlog of new hires going back to 2009 for any new positions that open up.

Lawyering right now seems like a pretty sure-fire path to bankruptcy.

edit: With the above caveat, what Deni said.

How ya doing, buddy?

Working for a firm sucks up here, too, but there is always demand for things like contract law and mediation stuff. Lawyers always find work up here, just not necessarily in a get rich firm. Also we aren't very litigious as a people.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by Amblin' Andy's Awesome Adventures

I'll just throw it out there because you had an interest, but the job market for lawyers in this country is pretty shit right now. Law graduates have been increasing as available jobs have been declining. With the recession, the major firms cut entry level positions, and deferred the hiring of people they'd already made offers to. The end result is they've got a backlog of new hires going back to 2009 for any new positions that open up.

Lawyering right now seems like a pretty sure-fire path to bankruptcy.

edit: With the above caveat, what Deni said.

It would be years from this point before I get to finishing law school (or passing a bar test without finishing school), so it is wild speculation concerning that. I'm sure I'd find meaningful employment in the interim.

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I finished uni with £4,500 in student loans. Luckily over here you don't have to pay it back until you earn over a certain threshold and the interest rate is capped at inflation so my student loan, some ten years later still stands at basically £4,500.

Of course back in those good old days you didn't have to pay fees to go to uni so whereas now, what Deni said is very sensible, even over here, back then Uni was just an excuse to get pissed up for free for three years which possibly lead to you getting a degree in the process.

Good times.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Me in 2007:
"Hmm. MFA degree. Sounds like a good idea."

Me in 2009:
"Now that I have accumulated $80,000 worth of student loans, I will now move across the country to Hollywood and write music for TV and movies."

Me in 2012:
"Paper or plastic?"


Cheers.

How ya doing, buddy?

I'm looking at $80k before the end of my journey, but wrapping up with a masters in compsci. So that should go fine for me.

But yeah. Don't borrow money for an arts degree. It's... likely to end in tears.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Don't go to culinary school, or any trade school for that matter.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Pizza Helmet von Cuntingham

Don't go to culinary school, or any trade school for that matter.

Depends on the trade. There is still a demand for machinists in most industrial areas of the US and they tend to make a decent living.

Zephyrin: I'm confused, aren't you in the Army? Why would you need student loans to finish your degree?

How ya doing, buddy?

Because Gumby as my brother would learn the hard way, a school has a set aside funding for those in the military. He went across 4 states to find out that they ran out. :\ I'm assuming that's what you're asking of Zeph.

FELIPE NO

I'm not sure what you're talking about Philia, this set aside funding thing. The Nat. Guard pays for my tuition, but nothing more. Books, fees, bills, living expenses...that's all on me.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

For anyone not yet in college and thinking about joining the military, this is another reason to go ROTC. You get full tuition, a stipend while in school, and get commissioned above entry-level.

Zeph, you can also look into getting a job on campus. If you get the right kinds (such as desk attending), you're essentially paid to sit there and do homework. If you're in engineering, you can probably find a summer internship that'll pay a few grand over two months, and that could really help you keep your student loans down.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Working helps, but there's no way (unless you're in a community college) that you can work enough to pay tuition up front. Some of my relatives still don't understand that, and it's frustrating. I worked my butt off and still only kept about $10k off my $80k, which was totally worth it, but not enough to keep attending without loans. Now: I did CC in the summers and was able to pay for that out of pocket, but was working full time at the time. Summers are awesome. So much daylight!

The sucky thing about CC though is that (unlike most 4-years) they usually won't loan you enough for living expenses, so if you end up out of work it can be a dead end.

There's nowhere I can't reach.