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There’s some weird things about this article. 1) Their daughter likely would’ve qualified for quite a bit of financial aid, which potentially could have brough

There’s some weird things about this article. 1) Their daughter likely would’ve qualified for quite a bit of financial aid, which potentially could have brought a fancy art college to within reason for her. That she never even applied to her dream schools means she will never know if they would’ve been competitively priced. 2) Collectively, student debt is $1.6T, but that doesn’t tell you much about the per graduate burden. Here’s some data: https://studentloanhero.com/student-loan-debt-statistics/ https://studentloanhero.com/student-loan-debt-statistics/. Average debt load is $30K or $7.5K per year of study (just living on that amount of money seems like a good deal). That’s is quite a bit of money, but not insurmountable. Median payment is $222/month. Also pretty feasible for most graduates, especially when inflation and wage gains are factored in.

JMTQp8lwXL 7y ago
Median payment seems like a misleading statistic because there are many repayment plans: the default is 10 years for student loans; but income-based repayment could extend that. Affordable monthly payments across the board is good for all graduates, but it doesn't necessarily imply it's $222/month for 10 years for all debtors.
- learc83 7y ago
  You'll never owe more than 10% of income over 1.5x the federal poverty rate though assuming you don't get private loans (90% of loan disbursements are public).
baking 7y ago
My biggest issue with it was that you are in the "too well-off to get aid but not well-off enough to pay cash" gap, then you should be expanding the number of schools you are applying too, not reducing. In-state and out-of-state public schools, and a wide mix of small to large private schools in both the "reach" and "safety" categories to see what kind of financial offers you get. With the caveat that if it turns out you hate the school that offered you money and end up transferring out, you lose all those other offers and you will be pretty much limited to public schools.
- asdff 7y ago
  If cash is king you need to start busting your ass freshman year of high school. Four years of pushing it and you can net an easy scholarship that will take out a chunk of the cost, or even get a full ride and be able to go anywhere you'd like.
  - baking 7y ago
    "full ride" <> "able to go anywhere you'd like" Unless the one school that offers you a "full ride" is the one that you wanted to go to.
JamesBarney 7y ago
But they're not the median family, sending their median daughter to a median university. They're the Warnick's, considering sending Ella Warnick to Pratt, so the median debt, and median payment isn't relevant. We know how much the school is,75,000 a year. We know how much they can afford. $15,000 a year. So we know that Ella will probably be in ~ $240,000 worth of debt.

JMTQp8lwXL 7y ago

Median payment seems like a misleading statistic because there are many repayment plans: the default is 10 years for student loans; but income-based repayment could extend that. Affordable monthly payments across the board is good for all graduates, but it doesn't necessarily imply it's $222/month for 10 years for all debtors.

learc83 7y ago
You'll never owe more than 10% of income over 1.5x the federal poverty rate though assuming you don't get private loans (90% of loan disbursements are public).

baking 7y ago

My biggest issue with it was that you are in the "too well-off to get aid but not well-off enough to pay cash" gap, then you should be expanding the number of schools you are applying too, not reducing. In-state and out-of-state public schools, and a wide mix of small to large private schools in both the "reach" and "safety" categories to see what kind of financial offers you get. With the caveat that if it turns out you hate the school that offered you money and end up transferring out, you lose all those other offers and you will be pretty much limited to public schools.

asdff 7y ago
If cash is king you need to start busting your ass freshman year of high school. Four years of pushing it and you can net an easy scholarship that will take out a chunk of the cost, or even get a full ride and be able to go anywhere you'd like.
- baking 7y ago
  "full ride" <> "able to go anywhere you'd like" Unless the one school that offers you a "full ride" is the one that you wanted to go to.

JamesBarney 7y ago

But they're not the median family, sending their median daughter to a median university. They're the Warnick's, considering sending Ella Warnick to Pratt, so the median debt, and median payment isn't relevant. We know how much the school is,75,000 a year. We know how much they can afford. $15,000 a year. So we know that Ella will probably be in ~ $240,000 worth of debt.