Quote:
Originally Posted by RayinPenn
It is intern season at our firm and we have three in our department -I have one working on a project for me. (She is awesome). One of the two others and I got to chatting and he told me he will have $200k of student loan debt when he graduates...when he said it I tried to not show the shock I felt. The University he attends is ranked in the top ten of business schools in the country...
Later a bunch of my twenty something colleagues were having afternoon coffee when the subject came up and the themes were:
1. Some had debt but nothing like our intern
2. It just wasn't worth it and it will take years to pay off... The 'nut' will be over 2500. A month.
3. It is a relationship killer - girls they have dated with huge debts and how they wrote them off when they found out...
4. An 18 year old has no sense of the financial impact of their college choice decisions.
The thought of that debt has me sitting here in disbelief...
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It makes you wonder about the caliber of the counseling at our high schools, not to mention questioning the input of the parents who, quite often, have guaranteed the loans.
All too many Bachelors Degrees are simply a "check in a box" on a job application. Most graduates are not qualified to manage a sunglass kiosk at the mall. However, they have not been forewarned. In this market, a degree without on the job experience (within their major's field) is nearly worthless.
Parents need to get more involved. If they start really delving into the curriculum and the associated costs, maybe they could drive a serious restructuring of universities. Rising tuition has far outpaced inflation for years, yet the caliber of education has fallen.