I have a young friend in a neighboring state who graduated college a few years ago with a liberal arts degree. She has way over $100,000 of student debt. Her monthly payments are similar to what she would pay on a mortgage for a small house. However, work has been sparse and for many months the debt went unpaid, racking up onerous penalties. Like 85 percent of recent college grads, she couldn't find a job that paid enough to even split a rental with friends, so she had to come home and live with her parents.
Most men dont want to get seriously involved and committed to her for fear they may become responsible for her debt. There was a recent story of a young woman with $100,000 of student debt for a photography degree who was engaged to be married. Right before the wedding, her fiance asked to see all her debt. He was surprised to see that she had $170,000 of debt and called off the marriage.
Right at the age when they should be marrying and buying a home... they aren't eligible for a mortgage as they already have too much debt. Many also have credit card debt and car payments. A lot of Baby Boomers were planning on funding their retirement by selling their homes to this generation.
Unfortunately, the politicians in their wisdom passed a law that, unlike most other debt, student debt is not dischargeable by declaring bankruptcy. Start missing payments and the penalties can double or triple the debt. So our youth are stuck with very heavy loans, interest rates and penalties... for decades. They are DEBT-SLAVES to the banks for life. Recently, student debt surpassed total credit card debt and is approaching $1 trillion dollars.
Students (and parents) PLEASE try to avoid going into debt for your education. Like my friend, DON'T assume you will get a good job and pay off the debt. You WON'T. If you love social work, check to see if there are any jobs and what they pay. Dont take on $100,000 of debt if the job pays $30,000 a year. There is much more need for good plumbers and electrical linesmen and auto mechanics than another psych major or lawyer. Unfortunately, many people in our society often turn 'up their noses' at these essential and often lucretive jobs.
To be honest, DON'T major in Psychology, English, French, Sociology, History, Women's Studies, Art History, Photography, etc. And DON'T go to Law School... many are graduating with huge debt from college and law school and are waiting tables, parking cars or doing 'document searches' in the basement of law firms for $12 an hour... and the internet may take those jobs away. If you must go to college, learn a trade like engineering, nursing, pre-med, even farming.
Many kids go to college because their friends ar going, their parents want them to, or they dont know what to do with themselves. DON'T. It's OK to take off a year and work and save money. I took off a year and worked in the Big Horn mountains of Wyoming (very exciting). Then I painted houses and cut lawns and pumped gas while taking two pre-med courses at an inexpensive college (with some of the best professors I ever had) and lived and ate at home to save money. (I already had a French degree but that is a different story.) Start at a community college for the first two years. These schools are excellent and very inexpensive. Many parents want the expensive, prestigious school but two of my kids went to WestConn and got a good, and much less costly, education and have NO student debt now.
BHS students and parents, I am wishing you all the best. This is a very exciting time of year as you get accepted at the college of your dreams, as you go off to be on your own, as you begin working on your glorious future. PLEASE, do it with eyes wide open Please try to NOT take on debt that will weigh you down for decades.
Please go to sites like studentloanjustice.org go to "Victims," then click on a state and weep... but learn from their experience.
And best wishes to all of you
Robin Appleby M.D.
Outstanding advice to our high school students who need pragmatic, practical views on the next twenty years of their lives. Parents should never push their kids into debt that they ultimately can't afford simply because they are searching for "bragging rights" on the fields in town. Debt is destroying young lives just as much as drugs are yet there are no groups working to fight debt. Indeed, Brookfield's children are encouraged to go into debt. Learn, but learn smart. Go to school, but go to school smart. Today, Harvard's MBA's in a recent poll said the opportunties aren't here. Take your time sizing up the world and it's opportunities and proceed, but with caution. The way the new game is stacked, being shackled with debt until you're 40 is no way to go, especially since you can't escape them.
Sound advice in this new age of unique economics - we are not in the last century of good jobs and high pay. The new reality is exactly as Dr. Appleby described. I would add that there are many scholarships available at some top name schools, do the research and you may be rewarded. Military service is also an option for those who may need some growing up time. Tough times are our near term outlook, those who planned wisely (didn't take on large debt) will do OK - not great - but OK. Thanks for a well stated perspective. Good Luck to all our youth.
As a nation, we have to do something to make college affordable. You point out a real problem - that the cost of higher education is out of control, yet the suggestion of not taking on debt doesn't solve the problem on any kind of large scale. To stay competitive, we have to educate a generation that is competent with technology and science. We don't have a global plumbing crisis. We have a global energy crisis. We need minds that will be trained to solve that and other difficult problems. A debt-free education is not accessible to all, but a quality higher education should be. I don't disagree with you, I just think there needs to be more to the solution. We don't place the proper value on education in this country, and the fact that it's cost-prohibitive to most people is just another symptom of that.
And I agree with you, too, Laura. What if WestConn, in partnership with local schools, created an "interim year" where students who were "undeclared" or generally ill-prepared to start on a career-focused educational path could take gen eds and work at internships to help them better understand what they want to do?
Reflecting on the issue, is problem created by banks willing to "over loan" student loans due to the fact that the student can not default, even in bankruptcy? Is it caused by over zealous parents keen on giving their child an education at any price? Is it because colleges are overpaying for instructors? Are students counseled to borrow for a liberal arts degree that doesn't command the salary of a neurosurgeon? Is it because of societal pressures of education at any price? These are young kids acquiring debt at barely the age of majority. Should there be a law not allowing them to borrow until the age of 21 giving them time to see it all?
That being said, the economic situation in the country was much different 40 plus years ago. College was (relatively) inexpensive. I know people who went to private schools and studied and worked and graduated with NO debt. It was relatively easy to get a good job as America still produced a lot. Even French majors, classical Greek, Anthropologists, etc. could get good jobs and were not weighted down with debt. What I dont want to see is excited, starry eyed, clueless young people taking on huge amounts of debt that they can never repay. I see this all the time. In their enthusiasm, many commit themselves to a life time of debt slavery and misery. When you read the horrifying stores at Studentloanjustice.org...victims...state..you realise that each of them had dreams also and now the debt is destroying their lives.
Like you, I fear that America is falling behind in science and technology. It takes a lot of work to get degrees in those subjects and I think that many students are not willing to work that hard. I think they also fear that they will not get a job as there is so much outsourcing and foreign engineers brought in to undercut the salaries. I so agree with you that there is a global energy crisis. I tried to address this with the article on "Living a Low Energy Lifestyle". I believe in Hubbert's Peak and think that conventional petroleum peaked in either 2005 or 2008 and is declining. We Americans are about 5 % of the world's population and use about a quarter of the petroleum for our energy intensive lifestyle. It was different in 1970 when we had half as many people, pumped almost 10 million barrels a day, and mainly used our own oil and the money stayed here. Now we are sending $ Trillions of dollars abroad, sometimes almost half our trade balance, to buy oil. Yet very few seem to want to cut back their energy use, downsize their huge homes and SUVs, drive less, better insulate their homes, grow some of their own food (it takes 400 gal of fuel equivalent to feed an American), heat their homes with wood.
ABout the trades, I read an article that we honor and estime a 'poor grade philosopher' and look down on a 'top grade' plumber or electrician. I wish that electricians, plumbers, mechanics, and the electric linesmen that worked so hard during our blackouts, etc., could be afforded more status and respect....but ask them how many times they have been distained and rejected by women because they didnt go to college. For a lot of men and boys, being outside building things, cutting down trees, excavating, etc., just fits them a lot better than wearing a tie and sitting in an office or bank. Margaret Mead noted that after millions of years of evolution, young men are ontologically prepared to sail across oceans, conquer continents, explore mountains, etc. Their hormones are raging ....so what do we ask them to do ? Try to sit still in a library and study subjects that often dont seem very relevant to them.
The article was meant to be taken as some well meaning advice and just like all advice you are welcome to "take it or leave it".(By the way, I know for a fact that Dr. Appleby would rather see the world run by women! )
You have a lot of very good ideas and I agree with much of what you say. However, please refrain from personal attacks and labels. It is a very sad thing when people of differing opinions cannot talk (and listen) to one another. It is imperative that we all try extra hard to be polite in our civil discourse. Unfortunately, the country is more divided and polarized than at any time since the 1850s, and we all know how that ended. You have a lot to add to the conversation and I hope that you will continue to speak. Best wishes
These terms are actually personal attacks. They degrade the conversation, the user and the person being attacked. You have a lot of good ideas and I agree with much of what you say. However, please refrain from personal attacks and labels. It is a very sad thing when people of differing opinions cannot talk (and listen) to one another. It is imperative that we all try extra hard to be polite in our civil discourse. Unfortunately, the country is more divided and polarized than at any time since the 1850s and that did not end well. You have a lot to add to the conversation and I hope that you will continue to speak out. Best wishes.