Student Loans: Bondage of the young and naive
Excerpt:
In 2009, the most recent data available, 67 percent of graduates had debt, averaging $24,000 per student, up 6 percent from the previous year, according to the non-profit Project on Student Debt. The numbers are even higher at private institutions.
The figures do not include the growing number of loans taken out by parents, and only limited data on for-profit colleges, where student debt is typically much higher, but relatively few institutions report it.
Americans now owe more on their student loans than they do on their credit cards—a first, according to FinAid.org, which has created what it calls the Student Loan Debt Clock.
The organization figures America’s student loan debt is growing at a rate of $2,853.88 per second. At this pace, it will surpass $1 trillion in 2012.
Comment: CNBC has a one hour program that is worthwhile. The individual stories are heartrending. Particularly pathetic are kids taking out student loans for lame majors that have little future. More CNBC coverage here.
From: States With the Highest Student Debt:
ReplyDeleteArt students, by all means follow your passion. But just know that if you choose to attend the Cleveland Institute of Art, the class of 2009 left with a whopping $61,270 in debt. That’s 2.4 times the state average, and 2.1 times that of Bowling Green. Buy hey, you’re art students. You never expected to be rich anyway, right?
I am hoping and praying that someday, somebody imposes a "Prop 48" kind of lower limit on SAT/ACT scores for eligibility for student loans. Something tells me that "ethnic and gender studies" would fall by the wayside if you actually required some intellect to get into college.
ReplyDelete