Student Loan Hell

[CamilleDevine]

^ HOLY SHIT!

I don't know about other unis, but mine is one of the most respected and it's costing me about $5k/semester, so around $10k/year (tuition). That seems reasonable to me. It's heavily subsidised by international students, though. They pay about 3 times as much as us to do the same courses.

Does that happen elsewhere too? We get a ton of students from Asian countries coming here to study, forking out big money for the qualification and then hoping that'll help make the case for them migrating here.

[LilyBathory]

UC - http://students.berkeley.edu/finaid/home/cost.htm
CSU-http://www.calstatela.edu/univ/finaid/cost.php
Private-http://www.stanford.edu/dept/finaid/undergrad/budget/index.html

Just looking at the numbers makes my head hurt!!

holy fucking shit.

my university costs about 700 € per semester, and on-campus-living is pretty much unheard of (in fact, "campus" is pretty much unheard of) so I'd say my cost of living is about 10 grand/year. And I thought I was a tough cookie cause I pay for it all my self.

the way most students fund university is called "BAFÖG". It's a loan by the government given out monthly. You are only eligible if you hurry the fuck up with your studies and if your parents are poor. My parents would not let the government look into their books, so I'm not eligible despite poor parents. Also I've never known what hurrying the fuck up is. Anyway, you need to pay back BAFÖG, but as far as I know there is no way anybody could get in trouble doing that. You don't even pay back the full sum. Now that we have tuition fees (since 2006, and they'll probably kick that by next year cause it doesn't work in a country built on free education) you can also take private loans with very little interest, but I refuse to go into debt and would rather drop out.

[miss.hell]

lol i went to community college and a full semester was like 600 bucks, those others schools tuition's make me want to vomit

[[bettie braaains]]

i owe so much in student loans.. i quit school in 07 and just started paying some of my loans this past year.. i pay AES like $120 a month, but Sallie Mae wnats nearly $300 a month from me and they tell me there's nothing they can do to make the payment amounts any lower, so i don't pay them. my credit is so fucked already that it's not going to make a difference.. having money to keep a roof over our heads & food on our table > paying a ridiculous amount of money for schooling that i never even completed. the only thing that sucks is i can't get any loans for school if i decide to go back..

[Chaosbean]

i owe so much in student loans.. i quit school in 07 and just started paying some of my loans this past year.. i pay AES like $120 a month, but Sallie Mae wnats nearly $300 a month from me and they tell me there's nothing they can do to make the payment amounts any lower, so i don't pay them. my credit is so fucked already that it's not going to make a difference.. having money to keep a roof over our heads & food on our table > paying a ridiculous amount of money for schooling that i never even completed. the only thing that sucks is i can't get any loans for school if i decide to go back..

Don't worry not paying your student loans doesn't hurt your credit nearly as much as they want you to think. An unpaid parking ticket has a much larger impact.

[jessiegrrrl]

i owe so much in student loans.. i quit school in 07 and just started paying some of my loans this past year.. i pay AES like $120 a month, but Sallie Mae wnats nearly $300 a month from me and they tell me there's nothing they can do to make the payment amounts any lower, so i don't pay them. my credit is so fucked already that it's not going to make a difference.. having money to keep a roof over our heads & food on our table > paying a ridiculous amount of money for schooling that i never even completed. the only thing that sucks is i can't get any loans for school if i decide to go back..

Don't worry not paying your student loans doesn't hurt your credit nearly as much as they want you to think. An unpaid parking ticket has a much larger impact.

Yep, it's true! Good words of wisdom. Student loan debt isn't "bad debt". It won't be as bad as ya think.

[opiiate]

I am looking at coming out of my undergrad with a debt load of about 11-15 thousand dollars. Which is NOTHING in comparison to many people I know. I am currently paying about 30 bucks a month on a bank provided student loan, but once I graduate school I'm looking at well over 200 dollars a month plus whatever OSAP decides to charge me. FML

[jessiegrrrl]

I am fortunate in that I don't have any undergrad loans .. But grad school loans will be about $60k once it's all said and done. And then interest.

[TheWorstIdea]

The provincial government 'unfroze' tuition in my first year of university...and it basically doubled over the course of my degree. Even working almost full-time and going to school full-time, I still ended up $7000 in debt. It fucking sucked.

[opiiate]

I am fortunate in that I don't have any undergrad loans .. But grad school loans will be about $60k once it's all said and done. And then interest.

!!! What about grants! I was under the impression that grad school was heavily subsidized or at least there was a fdair amount of mony made available to people pursuing graduate work. Conversely,I live in Canada so my education experience is definately different.

[opiiate]

The provincial government 'unfroze' tuition in my first year of university...and it basically doubled over the course of my degree. Even working almost full-time and going to school full-time, I still ended up $7000 in debt. It fucking sucked.

ontarrrriooooo?

[jessiegrrrl]

I am fortunate in that I don't have any undergrad loans .. But grad school loans will be about $60k once it's all said and done. And then interest.

!!! What about grants! I was under the impression that grad school was heavily subsidized or at least there was a fdair amount of mony made available to people pursuing graduate work. Conversely,I live in Canada so my education experience is definately different.

Welp, that IS the case for a lot of doctoral programs (not all, but some). Especially depending on what it is you are studying. I am working on a 3 year Master's degree. I can't find much help at all. I will take out about twenty thousand each year, to cover all three semesters per year, and then I have some extra in a refund left over that I save and use on necessities if needed. When it's all said and done, whatever leftover I have saved I will be able to either throw straight back into the loan to at least knock it down a bit when it comes time to start paying, or use it to support me through any gap I may have between graduating and getting a job.

[ComradeM]

i owe so much in student loans.. i quit school in 07 and just started paying some of my loans this past year.. i pay AES like $120 a month, but Sallie Mae wnats nearly $300 a month from me and they tell me there's nothing they can do to make the payment amounts any lower, so i don't pay them. my credit is so fucked already that it's not going to make a difference.. having money to keep a roof over our heads & food on our table > paying a ridiculous amount of money for schooling that i never even completed. the only thing that sucks is i can't get any loans for school if i decide to go back..

Have you talked to Sallie Mae recently? Because they told me the same thing for a long time, but now they have income based repayment options and I was able to draaaastically reduce my payments...again, hooray student loan reform.

[BluDDie_Nukkles_Zanna]

$45,000 a year for 4 years. I cant wait to start paying that shit off

[ComradeM]

^^^ eeeeee.... that makes me feel better about my 50k or so total for 4.5 years plus a jaunt through special fx make up school...