Did you graduate from college with debt?

[traviesojmt]

I graduated from a state college in 1996 with zero debt. My parents and I alternated semesters. I worked full-time during the summers (sometimes 2 jobs) and paid for the fall semester and then my parents paid for the spring semester. I also worked part-time during the school year. It seemed tough at the time, but I am grateful that I graduated without debt.

My DH graduated college without debt thanks to the GI Bill from his military service. After graduating, he decided to rejoin the military and joined the AF. He now has 2 master degrees without any debt thanks to the military.

 

[cjnix29]

Well, I've got you all beat. I graduated from law school with over $120,000 of debt, and my student loan payments are about $1000 a month. And, much to your surprise, lawyers don't all make a ton of money after graduating. I will probably be 60 before it is all paid off. I had no clue about the ramifications of borrowing that much. It has made a huge difference in what we have been able to do. Of course, more so now, since I got sick and can't work. I wish I had paid attention to the lectures on the risks with borrowing that much when I started school.

 

[tar heel]

Contrary to what this thread says, a lot of kids graduate without debt. Of course, plenty do have debt, too. DH and I are old and were very, very lucky to have graduated without debt as will our kids.

 

[Soben]

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.

That makes sense...if you're going to be a neurosurgeon, you can afford to pay some loans off. Mary Hunt has some sort or formula where you look up what you'd make when you graduate and base your maximum student loans on that amount. The problem I see is that you really don't know what the future hold, if you flunk out of med school, you would still have the loans (I know someone who made it thru med school, but can't pass the state test, he's working retail); others on here have had medical problems; I personally got married and pregnant right away and have only worked sporadically for the past 13 years; these kids are only really teenagers, they can change their minds, many don't really know what they want to be.

I graduated with 4K, we paid it off, and it didn't kill us. I would just try to keep it as low as possible because you never know what the future holds, but you do know that the less debt you have going in the better off you'll be.

 

[wdwfan16]

Did you have debt when you graduated from college? Yes

How long did it take you to pay it off? 3 years. I made it a point to pay it off and become debt free.

Did it alter your life-style after graduation? What lifestyle? I was a poor college student and then a poor graduated college student.

Were there things that you wanted to do, but couldn't because of the debt? Sure. Debt is always a hindrance to what one wants to do.

 

[QVCshopper]

Well, I've got you all beat. I graduated from law school with over $120,000 of debt, and my student loan payments are about $1000 a month. And, much to your surprise, lawyers don't all make a ton of money after graduating. I will probably be 60 before it is all paid off. I had no clue about the ramifications of borrowing that much. It has made a huge difference in what we have been able to do. Of course, more so now, since I got sick and can't work. I wish I had paid attention to the lectures on the risks with borrowing that much when I started school.

Sorry that you have that much in loans & you can't work. I'm a Suze fan, and she says that students should consider their loans before pursuing careers with high tuition. My BIL and his gf are both dentists and their loans are crazy. Especially hers b/c she also has undergrad loans. She's constantly worried about them, and just starting dentists don't make tons.

 

[gandycat]

I am still paying off my student loans. I pretty much financed my entire college education myself. I worked while going to school but it wasn't enough to pay tuition and living expenses. By the time I was done with graduate school, I owed close to $20,000. With interest, by the time I'm done paying them off it will be around $33,000 (more than I ever made per year as a social worker). Thankfully they will be paid off in a year or so (I graduated from grad school in 1992, it was a public college).

Without loans I couldn't have gone to college so when I think of it that way, there wasn't another choice. I already went to school for 6 years with grad school, I would have gone insane if it took much longer than that.

I can say that yes, it has affected my lifestyle, my monthly payment is as much as my car payment. I can't wait until it's paid off! Good luck to your daughter. I would say to just keep reminding her that every penny she borrows will add $$ on to her monthly payment.

 

[Cindy B]

I graduated December 2008. After college it was difficult to find a full time work position. Thankfully, I have a small loan balance (less that 18K) and I am over paying on it every month. I also con5)solidated so that helps.. my payment is less than $200 per month (approx 175) and I pay extra every month. I have it automatically set up.

I am in a different situation as an adult student. I do have a spouse who is working.

I did also utlize many opportunities at a local community college and transferred the maximum amount of credits so I only had to pay for one year and one semester at the universiity.. transferring in as a mid junior definetely helped. My community college had a dual agreement with the university so I took the same courses (even the syllabii stated the university not the community college) so I saved a ton of money.

Depending on field, it may be extremely difficult to find a positon.

 

[DawnM]

I did not have debt from under grad (parents paid all of it), but I did have some loans from grad school (maybe $14K) and then DH had almost $30K from grad school.

We paid our monthly amount until we sold our house and we took some of the profit of our house sale to pay the last chunk off.

Dawn

 

[KandD]

I did not have any debt from undergrad. I worked my way through and it took me about 5 1/2 years to complete. I started at a community college and then transferred to a university. My dad did help me as much as he could.

I am in grad school now and so far I have no debt. I hope to graduate with no loans. I have one more year.

 

[Luv Bunnies]

DH and I were both lucky. Our parents paid our way through school so we both graduated with no debt. We're going to try very hard to do the same thing for our kids. I think it's a huge advantage to start out a new job after college with no debt to worry about.

 

[crisi]

I didn't have debt. I went to a state school, my parents could cover tuition, I covered living expenses by working. I also got a scholarship for my final year. That meant I got out of college and into a fairly low paying job, but was able to make house payments and start a "grown up life" pretty much right out of college.

My husband went to a private school. He had a good grant package, but still had about $40k in student loans. Due to the crummy job market when we graduated (the same year), he ended up pouring coffee for minimum wage, exhausted his deferrements, defaulted on his loans, and went into bankruptcy. When we married about seven years post college he was just clearing that up, and it haunted us for the first five or ten years of our marriage, when my credit was great and his wasn't.

Its hard to have a crystal ball for the entry level job market four years out for any profession. Teaching is usually stable, but try looking for a teaching job now. A friend's kid graduated with a four year RN and had to move across the country for a job.

I'm trying very hard to be able to fully fund my kids' undergrad degrees.

 

[Cindy B]

.

Its hard to have a crystal ball for the entry level job market four years out for any profession. Teaching is usually stable, but try looking for a teaching job now. A friend's kid graduated with a four year RN and had to move across the country for a job.

I'm trying very hard to be able to fully fund my kids' undergrad degrees.

Teaching is not stable in some parts of the NE. NJ is having a huge budget crisis and many many teachers will be out of work come June. My local district alone is cutting about 175 positions. CA is having a huge teacher crisis as well. Of course YMMV in your state but I would never consider teaching as a stable positoin in this state for a very long time (and yes, I am a certified teacher that has been looking for a full time teaching positon since I graduated in December 2008)

 

[njcarita]

nope... started working part time at 16 and had 2 part time jobs when i was a senior in HIgh school.... had my first year of college saved up by the time I started at my state college... i than worked 15- 20 hours a week while in college to pay for my tuition and graduated with my B.S in 4 years.....

 

[FINFAN]

Graduated in '85, had $7800 in loans, paid off in 6 years

my kids will be in worse shape, easily.

 

[SkinsFan76]

I graduated in 1998 with just over $20,000 in loans and my wife graduated in 1999 with about $25,000. It took about seven years but we paid off the entire amount. We were able to buy two new cars and a house while still paying off the loans on an accelerated schedule. We were both working and really didn't notice that we were depriving our selves of anything. The day after paying off the loans, I did notice the nice fat pay raise we got and able to save that money towards other items.

 

[2005s4]

My good friend just graduated with $150,000 in loans from law school.. after 6 months she finally received her "pass" from the bar, and took a job making under $40k/yr as a public defender.. yikes

 

[disfan07]

I have bee in community college for 3 years and will be going to UCSB for 2 more years (hopefully)

It will be around $23,000 per year for me. I have enough to pay next year and about $8,000-$10,000 left for the next year so that leaves me with $13,000 unaccounted for. I qualified for financial aid this year so I SHOULD qualify next year so hopefully that happens. But my parents have $15,000 set aside every year for my medical bills (it's what we have been spending every year for the past 5 years)....the deal is, since it is budgeted for me, if we dont spend it all, i get what's left for college...so far, it's looking like I will be getting nothing this year

We are guessing that I will probbaly graduate with about $10,000 in debt but I plan on going to graduate school to get my masters and doctorate as well so I have no idea what to expect

 

[Sagginit]

i am almost four years out of college and still have loans. my loans were about 1/4 of my total tuiton and board for four years at a private school. after scholarships and the little my single mom was able to contribute its really not that much compared to what it could be. i was not able to get a good job when i graduate right away, i had an ok full time part time job for two years and have been paying just what they ask of me. now that i have savings im going to start this spring paying off lump sums to get it down. it has not killed my life since i live at home, however right before i got my current job it was getting really tough since my last job paid so little and i was starting to feel strangled by my loans.

look at career/lifestyle choice vs cost of degree more than just basing it on not wanting your child to have debt. my friend took 5 yrs to get a BA in enviormental studies and now has loans that equal a mortgage and her industry does not pay well. i have a few friends that made the mistake of graduating with little or no undergrad loans and went back for a masters right away and now its not paying. my friend just got a masters in teaching in NJ and is in a bad place since NJ is getting rid of a lot of teachers. i wont get a masters until i know i am on the career path for it to pay off.

a lot of students have loans, its just a fact of life right now, i would not let loans stand in the way of making an education decision though. if your child is very bright dont force them to go to a college that is not a good fit just to save money, i know people who were forced to go to a community college to save money and they did not really live up to their full potential.

 

[Good Morning Dewdrop]

No debt - here's how I did it.

I went to a state school - UNC-CH.

My parents paid for half of college overall. They did pay for all of freshman year because they didn't want me to work that year. When I had to go one extra semister and I had to pay for all of it (fair enough).

I worked 2 jobs every summer - and during school I worked 40 hours per week (except freshman year - didn't work during school).

My parents worked it out that it would be about 1/2 of the expenses if they paid for tuitition and room (dorm). I had to pay for everything else. It worked out to my advantage because the things I had to pay for I could control my expenses (food choices, buy used books as cheaply as possible, etc).

When I graduated I had a few hundred dollars in the bank and zero debt. I never took out any kind of loan to pay for school and I never called home for money (that wasn't allowed under our plan).

Good luck!