Because of the state of the economy, many people, both professional and non-professional have decided to go back to school in hopes to attain a better job. The only down fall to this is that grants are numbered and loans are being offered widespread to everyone. Although grants are still being offered, tuition continues to increase and many students that do not have jobs are forced to take out loans in order to supplement the grants in order to take care of themselves and their families.
Student debt is at an all time high. Most students graduating with their Bachelors degree have an average of $24,000.00 in student loan debt. Although investors see student loans as a great investment, student loans cause issues for students when the time comes to pay the loans back. “When you think about what’s good debt and what’s bad debt, student loans fall into the realm of good debt, like mortgages,” Professor Dynarski said. “It’s an investment that pays off over the whole life cycle.”
With student loans, comes interest. There are two types of student loans, one which interest doesn’t occur until six months after graduation, and another where interest begins to occur as soon as the loan is taken out. Because jobs are scarce, this brings on a huge issue for students. Students that are forced to drop out of school because they cannot afford to live off of financial aid are then forced to take whatever job they can get. Most of the time, those entry level jobs do not pay enough for the students living expenses and student loan payments. Graduating students also have found it quite difficult to find employment, which will help pay for student loans, or even pay enough for living expenses and student loan payments.
The government can garnish wages in order to retain their money for student loans. Although many students may not be able to pay the student loans back, in most cases, bankruptcy is not an option. Nonpayment of student loans can affect credit scores, which can affect employment, or even housing.
There once were many jobs that would forgive your loans if you provided public services for a certain amount of years. There are also many jobs that would pay for you to attain your Masters Degree while you were employed because they knew that educated individuals were positive assets to their companies. Today, those jobs are very scarce, so in most cases, if a student decides to take out a student loan, it would be smart to sit down and really decide if this is the best choice for them.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/12/education/12college.html?_r=1
