I am generally sympathetic to student loan exploitation. I took out student loans, but responsibly held a job through college and paid them off once I got my fi

I am generally sympathetic to student loan exploitation. I took out student loans, but responsibly held a job through college and paid them off once I got my first real programming job (at 50k/year!) > That's the trick they use on kids to get them to sign up for these loans. You don't have to pay it until you graduate. Sometimes until you get a job. Sometimes they don't even tell you until when. MOST student loans do not accrue interest while in college. The problem comes when you exceed that limit and start to take out other loans. Perhaps to go to a better school. But to imply that most students pay interest during college is nonsense. Yes school is expensive. Even my no name local University was expensive. But I had 30k of loans at graduation, not 200k. Parents are just as responsible here. Loan companies can only exploit your kid if you let them. We have a generation of people terrible with money encouraging the same behavior in the youth. It's this intersection of idiots that is the problem. The schools encourage it to fund new facilities, the loan companies encourage it because its free money to them. The parents encourage it by teaching their bad money habits to their children. > Don't get me wrong we do need computer science graduates. It's just that most are not in it for computer science jobs. They are in for web programming and Apps. It's nothing new see people studying one thing and ending up in a completely opposite career space. The purpose of going to school is not to get a job it's to learn to think. Often times, having the ability to think confers a higher salary than not. In particular, STEM program rigor creates people who are HIGHLY adaptable to most fields. Hence why you see them everywhere. In summary the problem is not the loans, it's that they are not dischargeable. Make them dischargable and the problem goes away.