Student loans turn into crushing burden for unwary borrowers

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Student loans turn into crushing burden for unwary borrowers

Posted by socker 312 days ago, popular 312 days ago (http://www.latimes.com)
Category: Personal Finance | Tags: loan money personal finance student

Natalie Hickey left her small hometown in Ohio six years ago and aimed her beat-up Dodge Intrepid for the West Coast. Four years later, she realized a long-held dream and graduated with a bachelor's degree in photography from Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara.

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paulronan 312 days ago

It's a crime that high school and college counselors don't do a better job of informing potential college students of how college loans work and how much of a burden (or lifesaver) they can be.

scotsworth788 312 days ago

As a student who has some loans, this concerns me. I know I am personally going to be okay because I haven't taken out nearly as much as this person, but you can get trapped. Getting a private student loan is rather easy and can have very negative results.

ObliviousInvestor 312 days ago

Honestly, isn't it just common sense that $140,000 of debt is going to be difficult to pay off?

AnalogJunkie 311 days ago

I think it's sad that people go to school to get better jobs, and make a decent living, but they have to acquire so much debt to get there they're still eating ramen noodles after college!

thekritz 311 days ago

I agree with oblivious investor! Sorry to douse this thread with a bit of realism, but all decisions involve a tradeoff, a weighing of the costs and benefits. For someone like the girl in this article, perhaps it would have made more sense to go to an "average" school, which costs only 57K on average, according to the same article.

pimpyourfinances 311 days ago

I think that high schools need to take more of an active role in educating students about the cost of the colleges they attend and the type of loans they take.

I have a friend who recently graduated from a small and expensive private college. I'm guessing his student loan payments are at least $800-$1000 a month, and the school was so small that it won't carry any weight with employers. He's a smart kid, but I don't think he realized what he was getting into.

coglethorpe 311 days ago

I have an in-law that is now in deep because of student loans.

Slackerjo 310 days ago

$140K for photography?How many years of school do you need to take photographs for a living? For me I would never invest that kind of money into that kind of degree because the odds of earning an income to pay it off quickly to me seems limited.

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