The student loan crisis is a myth?

[split decision]

This one should spur some good debate here because we have some students up to their eyeballs in debt who probably can't see it any other way right now. But take a look at this interesting piece in The Atlantic with charts, graphs and factoids.

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/...crisis/309231/

On the other side of the coin, here's an article from Forbes that indicates the average student debt has climbed to at $27,000 and could play a role in the next financial crisis.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/halahtou...umps-to-27000/

So which is it? Student debt is driving the U.S. in the poor house or it's still a good value for the money in the long-term?

[BulldogWrestler]

I owed nothing out of college. 0.

That said, its downright criminal what most institutions charge and even more criminal with how they advertise and sell loans.

[cheeto101]

I worked my ass off to get out of college with less than 10k in debt. Every summer I was either working in a fishplant, or a pulp mill or any **** job I could get and saved every bit of it for school in the fall.

My wife's program on the other hand is pretty ****ing ridiculous. It costs her upwards of 10-15k per year between tuition and books and then it runs 11 months of the year! Shes going for her RN (registered nurse) so all of the in hospital time that she does she doesn't get paid anything for. So my big question is how the **** do they expect people to take those courses without running up tabs of 30-40k in debt without having a parent or spouse to support them when they only give them 1 month a year to work? Its completely ****ing ridiculous.

[spasgur]

My country pays me to go to university

[Onion]

I owed 35k when I was finish, my ex still owes 70k.

I worked all through school, but that was more for living costs.
Loans paid for school & books.

[19nate79]

Don't have an answer really. Countries with free college pay higher taxes, so free is a bit of a stretch. Maybe people shouldn't get phds in art history? 25k for a nursing degree is fine. Work hard and pay it off in a year or two. 50k to make 50k seems to be the norm. Really though if you're happy paying on a house for 30+ years and a car for 84 months then who cares about a 20 year student loan payment?

[split decision]

I owed 35k when I was finish, my ex still owes 70k.

I worked all through school, but that was more for living costs.
Loans paid for school & books.

Your ex owes $70,000? That's a heap of debt. Is she a doctor or a lawyer? If she's going to be pulling down $150,000 to $200,000 a year, then $70,000 doesn't seem so daunting to pay off.

[Onion]

Nope, that's the worst part of if. She makes like 45k. She will never hit 100k in her field..

It's because she went through and finished university (4yrs), then went for specialized training at a college (2yrs), which cost her more than the four years of university.

[BulldogWrestler]

Your ex owes $70,000? That's a heap of debt. Is she a doctor or a lawyer? If she's going to be pulling down $150,000 to $200,000 a year, then $70,000 doesn't seem so daunting to pay off.

Dude, $70k in student loans is NOTHING. That pays for a year at USC or any other private California school.

They have a "fast track" RN program that puts someone through the whole deal for around ~$70k. 6 months and you're done.

The thing is - these loans are freaking CRIMINAL how they're set up, and the fact that most schools have endowments in the BILLIONS is ridiculous too. I saw a stat that USC was bragging about a month or two back and they said they have enough money to run the school in the same way it's been run in recent years, and NOT COLLECT A DIME OF TUITION and they would last for 40-50 years or something before using up the endowment. That's RIDICULOUS.

[split decision]

I'm coming at this from a Canadian perspective. Getting a post-secondary education up here is generally much more affordable than in the States. Coming out owing $70,000 is on the higher end in our country.