4 ms·

Are people actually going into $250k of debt just for an undergraduate degree? I wouldn't even consider that sort of debt unless it was for medical school.

• sliverstorm 14y ago
  It isn't the norm, but yes. Folks have generally settled on that number as the benchmark college debt because it is very dramatic, but still not so far off in fantasy that you could call it false. What is the actual average debt on graduation? ~$27,000
  • jlgreco 14y ago
    > What is the actual average debt on graduation? ~$27,000 That does not seem bad at all, though I suppose I am coming from the perspective of being employed immediately out of school in your field, which obviously is not the case for everyone. Does anybody know what the average time to pay off that sort of loan is? I'm assuming that any undergraduate, regardless of degree, could expect to have that same average debt, but maybe that isn't true either.
    • sliverstorm 14y ago
      > That does not seem bad at all Which is why people on HackerNews prefer to quote boundary cases like $250k
      • jlgreco 14y ago
        It's not just HN, everyone seems to be in love with that number. Reddit, old media, etc. Previously I thought I was some sort of extreme/lucky outlier for getting out with a little less than $25k.
• ihodes 14y ago
  No, no one is (without some weird circumstance like their guardians are able to pay for the college, but would rather take on debt for tax/other reasons). Average debt is about an order of magnitude less, and I believe the mean is even less. Avg is pushed up by bad schools charging absurd fees.
  • darth_aardvark 14y ago
    You mean the median is even less, right?
    • ihodes 14y ago
      Yikes, yes.