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> It's bizarre that student debt has become the norm and students who have potentially low-earning majors such as History are still given similar amounts of mon
by NickM 10y ago
> It's bizarre that student debt has become the norm and students who have potentially low-earning majors such as History are still given similar amounts of money from banks as a CS major.
Not so bizarre when you consider that student loans are very difficult to get discharged via bankruptcy. The loan issuers don't need to worry so much about whether you'll be able to pay it back or not, because it's more a question of "when" than "if".
- tswartz 10y agoYeah that's a very good point. Interesting how they aren't easily discharged via bankruptcy. I may have to do some research on how exactly that got put in place and who was behind it...
- maxerickson 10y agoIt got put into place because they are high risk loans given out to people that have nothing to secure them with. If you could discharge them in bankruptcy, no one would offer them because huge percentages of people would go ahead and do so.
- talmand 10y agoEspecially for young people right out of college who have time to repair the damage to their credit.
- lotsofpulp 10y agoThereby naturally solving the problem. Schools won't be able to raise their prices to pay for non academic garbage like stadiums and fancy buildings, they won't have to compete with other schools accepting as many kids as possible to make as much money as possible to keep up with the Joneses with their newest toys. And society can have a discussion again on how much it values educating its populace.
- maxerickson 10y agoI think you have to have that discussion before you stop offering student loans. Nothing else would create the political room needed to do it...
- jrs235 10y agoI believe two Georgetown law students were the ones that exposed the hole. They took out loans for their law degrees, $xxx,xxx dollars in loans and then tried filing for bankruptcy to get a "fresh start" with no debt out of school. The court said no and refused to let them discharge that debt.
- pmiller2 10y agohttps://consumerist.com/2015/03/17/you-cant-discharge-your-student-loans-in-bankruptcy-because-of-panicked-1970s-legislation/ https://consumerist.com/2015/03/17/you-cant-discharge-your-s...
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- jostmey 10y agoThat's the problem. You add bankruptcy back in and the student loan problem will disappear. Banks will start assessing each person's ability to pay back loans before giving them a lifetime burden of debt. Fix bankruptcy laws, fix the student loan problem.
- melling 10y agoHow do you evaluate an 18 year old on their ability to pay back the loan? You ask them their major, which will probably change?
- jrs235 10y agoAlso, one doesn't have to approve loans for the full education. Approve loans per semester. If major changes the creditor could choose not to extend anymore debt. Likewise, creditors could require transcripts as part of qualifying for loans beyond the first semester. A students grades would have weight in whether to continue extending credit (granted some [particularly for-profit] schools might cheat and inflate grades but accreditation of schools would also be factored in loan approval... much like banks rely on home appraisers for mortgages).
- melling 10y agoSo you're incorrectly implying that people aren't successfully graduating? The problem is that people are graduating with huge debt and can't get jobs that pay well enough to pay off their debt.
- morgante 10y agoDid you read the article? A large number of the people who default on their debt never graduated.
- jrs235 10y agoRather than assuming and saying "did you read the article?" Perhaps rephrase your point to be: "According to the article..." or "The article says..." I normally would down vote a comment that starts with DYRTA. I haven't this time, I wanted to use the opportunity to express how I think we can maintain HNs civility. Thank you.
- dragonwriter 10y ago> The loan issuers don't need to worry so much about whether you'll be able to pay it back or not, because it's more a question of "when" than "if". That wouldn't be true even with the limitations on discharge in bankruptcy, except that servicers have been actively steering people with trouble paying into deferments rather than the various income-based-and-discharged-in-N-years plans (where N is generally 20 or 25.)