Did you graduate from college with debt?

TiffanyK

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Oct 28, 2003
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Did you have debt when you graduated from college? How long did it take you to pay it off? Did it alter your life-style after graduation? Were there things that you wanted to do, but couldn't because of the debt?

I'm asking because I've got a daughter about to start college in the fall and we've got decisions to make.
 
Hi Tiffany, I have to get over to your site and see whats cookin. :) I can answer for what DH and I had. He graduated college with debts that took us ten years to pay off. It was not a huge amount of money but seemed like it at first, and yes it probably altered what we did or didn't do as we had to budget to pay them off. However, it didn't kill us and I honestly suspect that the fact that Dh was footing some of the bill made him buckle down and graduate on time instead of being on the 5 year plan. ;)
 
I had minimal debt from college when I graduated in 1984. I went to a state school, but lived on campus. I'm sorry, I do not recall the amount...probably around 5 or 8,000. I paid this off within a year or two of working.

My DD is a sophomore in HS right now, and definitley, since 1984, the increase in cost of colleges has far surpassed the rate of inflation. Our hope is that if DD needs loans, that she will have a marketable degree, iin an industry where paying off the loans is feasible.
 
When I graduated back in 1987 I had $10k in student loans (one $2500 loan per year). My parents had 3 of us in college at once but contributed to all of our tuitions the best they could without taking on any debt themselves.

At first it seemed like so much money paying it back! I think it was around $125 per month for 10 years. It definitely made me think about things differently and I am glad I had them in the long run.

Eventually, DH started planning wedding, house, etc. so I increased my payments to pay them off earlier.

DH graduated 3X total with no loans or debt but it took him 13 or 14 years of going to school, mostly part-time, with company reimbursement. That included a Saturday program for one grad school. Great to not have the debt but it was a long haul and not for everyone.
 

Yes DH and I graduated with a significant amount of student loan debt. I've got a bachelor's and master's degree and DH has an associate's degree. I graduated last in 2007 and DH in 2006. We've paid off a few of the loans and should be able to pay another off soon, but our student loan debt won't be paid off for a VERY LONG time, as long as 25 years from now, if we aren't able to keep accelerating payments.

It did alter our life after graduation because our payments are the size of an average mortgage payment around here. It is the reason we do not have a house and still live in an apartment. I have an excellent job and DH is still only working part time (lost his full time job almost a year ago). We could have purchased a small house when he was working full time, but now that he isn't, we wouldn't be able to get a mortgage, despite all of our rent and other monthly payments being on time. Debt to income ratio is too high.

Hopefully, he'll get a full time job soon we can re-establish our savings, pay another loan off and buy a house.

I would encourage your daughter to work and pay as she goes for school, find the absolute cheapest way to go to school, or use as little student loans for school as possible.
 
I have 1 more class to go before graduation and my school loans are currently at 13K my DH graduated last year and has around 6K in school loan debt. Unless your parents are rich or you have scholarships every student accumulates debt. The good thing about school loans is that you dont have to rush to pay them off because at least the ones for my college are interest free. my DH had one that he got from a bank for 5K and we paid that one off right away just because it was prone to accumulating a higher interest rate. But we dont have any credit card debt, just school loans. and we are not too owrried about taking time paying them off.
 
I had about $20K in debt when I graduated from college, but I had a good job and I paid it off as scheduled ... in 10 years maybe? Since I had a well paying job the debt didn't bother me and I didn't add too much onto it except a car and eventually a house at the end of paying it off.
 
I graduated in 2003 with a Bachelor's Degree. I am still paying on two loans. One is a private student loan with Citibank and the other is a consolidation loan for all my gov, backed loans. I had a total debt for 3 yrs of college at a private 4 year college of 30,000.00. I have a low interest rate of 3.325% on my loans. My problem is that I can't find a teaching in the public schools here, so I am working as a daycare teacher with low pay and paying as I can. My lenders have been pretty good with deferments and reduction in payments if you can't pay. They have been great with me with me not working due to medical problems.
 
Yes, my DH and I graduated with debt. It took at least 10 years to pay it off. We had to buckle down to pay it off and it did alter our lifestyle for those years. Now we have teens to take care of and they are altering our lifestyle! So, when do we get to relax and feel like we have enough money???:confused3
 
I put myself through college and graduated 1 semester early in 1998 (to save money) with $16,500 in loans. I had them paid off within about 3 years. My parents did not have ANY money to contribute b/c my dad had been out of work for years before that and my mom had a mental breakdown (all unfortunately very true). I used to work 2+ jobs and then make payments on my tuition throughout the year. During the summers, I worked 7 days a week for 16 weeks straight. It was exhausting but worth it.

Anyway, when deciding on a college, my parents and I ran the numbers. For me, with a small scholarship and grants, a private college actually cost less than a public. Plus, I could get the classes I needed to take 18-22 credit semesters and graduate early, thus saving at least $10,000. Private schools can give out more money. Sometimes, when I didn't get enough of a grant, I wrote a letter to the fiancial aid office that usually resulted in $1000 more. I went to Loyola in MD--great school, and I loved it.
 
I am one of the only people I know of that didn't graduate with debt. I chose to go to an in-state school (I am originally from AZ) over going to much more expensive schools because it was more affordable and I worked the entire time and could easily pay for expenses as I went. I have no regrets choosing that path as I had just as many opportunities as those at more prestigious Universities as far as jobs and recruiters. In the end, I was a lot happier than most of my friends because I was able to accept a job that I enjoyed whereas many ended up going for the jobs that paid the most but sacraficed their personal lives due to the long hours required by most of those jobs. I stayed in the same town as my parents so we saved money with me living at home and I stayed more focused that way too and didn't get off track or in trouble like a lot of students who graduated a year or two after me. Then, I chose the job that took me furthest from home - it was scary but I made do and learned some valuable lessons.

My advice is to go for the most affordable option - so that after graduation, she can do whatever she wants and not have to worry about the tens of thousands of dollars she has to pay off. If she is unsure about what she wants to do, I would recommend starting off at a Community College. I started off at a state university that was about five hours away from home, got homesick and was over my head with the program I was in and got discouraged. My parents were supportive and encouraged me to come back to my hometown, take community college classes that were so much cheaper for my lower level requirements, and then transfer them over (the credits only transfer not the grades. :goodvibes) so that took a lot of pressure off of me too. I ended up only needing a years worth of classes at my local university to graduate and went for it.

I work with people that have been out of college for 10+ years and still are paying off the loans. I can't tell you how good it feels not to be in those shoes. :woohoo: I can see going into debt for a graduate level degree since that usually is a requirement for certain jobs, but not an undergrad one. JMHO. Good Luck to you and your daughter. :)
 
I went to a private school mainly because with grants and scholarships it worked out much cheaper than a state school. I ended up with about $13k in debt. I am still paying it off at $100 a month payment. It really doesn't hamper my lifestyle much and I am in no hurry to pay it off since it is only 2% interest. Any extra money goes to other higher interest debts (house, car) or to retirement savings where I earn a much higher rate of return.
 
Did you have debt when you graduated from college? How long did it take you to pay it off? Did it alter your life-style after graduation? Were there things that you wanted to do, but couldn't because of the debt?

I'm asking because I've got a daughter about to start college in the fall and we've got decisions to make.

Hi Tiffany,
I graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with about 10K in student loans. I was very young so altering my life style didn't even come into consideration. Probably because I was 22, single in NYC so my life style consisted of buying clothes, dating and clubbing. :lmao:

I didn't have a cell phone (non existant) so no cell phone bill, didn't have internet so no cable bill and did not need a car (In midtown Manhattan!! :scared1:)

I got a job teaching at a public h.s. right after college so it took me about 2 years to pay it off very comfortably.
 
I went to a private school mainly because with grants and scholarships it worked out much cheaper than a state school. I ended up with about $13k in debt. I am still paying it off at $100 a month payment. It really doesn't hamper my lifestyle much and I am in no hurry to pay it off since it is only 2% interest.

This saves me the trouble of writing my story out, since it's pretty much the same!

I wound up paying it off after about 5 years just because I was sick of having it out there.

DH graduated with almost $50k of debt, but he also went into a well compensated field. The payments on those were significant--about $450/month. We were able to get rid of them in about 5 years as well, mostly due to his professional income.

As always, you need to look at return on investment. If you're going into a fairly high paying career you may be willing to take out slightly bigger loans in anticipation of a healthy salary.

If your kid wants to rack up $80k for a B.A. in sociology, well...you need to have a conversation.
 
Graduated in 2000 with over $40K in student loans - paid them off in early 2009, so a tad over 8 years from the beginning of payments (after 6 mo. grace period after graduation). Truth be told, I didn't find a permanent full-time job in my field until late 2003, so once I had my "real" job it actually took me about 5-1/2 years to get rid of that debt - until then, I was paying the minimum as my income wouldn't allow me to do more than that.

I went to a community college (paid out of pocket), a state school, and a private university, so the loans were a combination of costs from the college and university. That was the balance from 11 years of college (yes, that is really eleven years - :rotfl:) , and I am very glad I did it.

It would have been nice to not have any debt after graduation, but my parents weren't in a position to be able to help finance my education, other than providing a free place to live during breaks. And did owing those loans change my lifestyle - it certainly limited overspending, which may have been a blessing! I learned how to budget and now that those student loan payments are gone (and WTH was I thinking doing a graduated repayment plan anyways?!?) it has freed up money, which feels really nice. :thumbsup2

Good luck with your decisions!
 
I graduated (undergrad) from a private university which (at the time) the tuition and room and board was well over 30k a year. I had about 12k in student loans (dh had 35k).

Due to medical problems and multiple job loses (mine due to medical problems and then dh lost his 2 years later) ours stayed in deferment for years (financial deferment and then school deferment). Then I went to law school (another 50k even though I had a 75% tuition scholarship). Now DH is in graduated school (another 20k).

So we are paying them from basically the start (we have paid off all the capitalized interest on the defered loan).

It does mean that we make a small mortgage payment on loans each month, but it doesn't really affect us. Where it would affect us is that its about $800 a month we don't have to spend on a mortgage payment. So instead of easily being able to afford around a 2k mortgage payment a month, we instead want to stay in the $1k-$1300 range.

Despite that, we probably still wouldn't make the choice to spend that much on a house anyways. I would just have more savings.
 
I graduated college with zero debt. I had a lot grants to pay for school. I have associates, BS, Teaching degree.

My job is not related to my degree at all. I have BS computer degree. I teach Pre-K.
 
I graduated without debt, and I'm so glad that I did.

When I finished my first degree (in 1989) I had trouble finding a job. For about six months I worked office temp jobs during the day and waited tables at night, which was nerve-wracking because I every month I worried about making enough for my rent and my car payment -- forget lifestyle and extras. I had none. About six months after graduation I found a job, but it wasn't really a good one. If I'd been paying loans in addition to my living expenses at that point, I really don't know how I would've made ends meet. Well, yes, I do. If I'd been paying off loans at that point, I would've ended up going into credit card debt for living expenses, and it would've taken me a long time to get out of that hole.

When I finished my second degree (in 1991) I found a job within days, and things were much better. Of course, by that time, I was also married and my husband had been working while I was in school.

I am anti-loan. Usually other options exist -- they aren't necessarily your first choice, nor are they always convenient -- but most people who are young, healthy, and have no dependants can do something to at least minimize loans.

Here are the things I did to get through school without loans:
My parents weren't able to pay anything, and they actively blocked my financial aid -- the point being, I was on my own.
Living at home was not an option.
I chose an affordable college.
I was in college for five years with my first degree; however, I don't regret that choice. I couldn't have paid off a loan in one year, so I came out okay in the end.
I worked all the time. All the time. All the time. Usually I had two part-time jobs during the school year. I made Dean's List most semester and graduated with honors.
After my first two years, I became an RA. That was honestly my best money-saving job. It didn't pay cash, but I got a room for free, 1/2 my tuition paid, my telephone paid (not a cell phone -- didn't exist yet), and a couple other nicey-nices like priority registration.
I did two professional internships, which paid better than running a cash register (but not as well as waiting tables) and also beefed up my resume.
I lived frugally. I rarely ate out, rarely bought new clothing, always bought used textbooks and when possible shared them with friends.
 
DH and I were both lucky enough to graduate from a State school with no debt. I hope that our DD's are that lucky as well, we have been planning and saving for their college education since I found out I was pregnant with each of them.

I was raised to believe that the parent pays for college so that is what I am hoping to do for them. I really like what DH's parents did. They made him take out loans for the length of his education. The deal was that if he finished in 4 years, they would pay them all off for him. He did and they paid them off. I thought that was great incentive not to drag things out.
 
I didn't have any debt when I graduated college however, I joined the military. They were giving away $50,000 for school including the GI bill. I also went while I was in and they paid 75% while I was still in the military. After I got out, I made sure I worked for companies that offered tuition reimbursement. The Army paid my bills monthly and company reimbursed me for the bills the army paid. I put that money into my big purchase fund. So I was double dipping a little but I had no loans and got a dual degree at a private school.

About to go to a new company and get them to pay for my masters.
 


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