westacadia:

pottsjen:

doidare:

pantslessprogressive:

“Of course, it’s not enough for us to increase student aid.  We can’t just keep subsidizing skyrocketing tuition; we’ll run out of money.  States also need to do their part, by making higher education a higher priority in their budgets.  And colleges and universities have to do their part by working to keep costs down.  Recently, I spoke with a group of college presidents who’ve done just that.  Some schools re-design courses to help students finish more quickly.  Some use better technology.  The point is, it’s possible.  So let me put colleges and universities on notice:  If you can’t stop tuition from going up, the funding you get from taxpayers will go down. 

Higher education can’t be a luxury – it’s an economic imperative that every family in America should be able to afford.” - President Obama

itislaw.gif

I’ll be $100,000 in debt after vet school. Mississippi State is raising tuition by the greatest amount of all vet schools next year, while at the same time the government won’t give me the $8500 in subsidized loans anymore. I’d have just the same capped amount of unsubsizided loans I’ve had in the past years to pay tuition and live on if I didn’t have a little from my parents coming my way. But who knows? It may not be enough! There’s still grad plus loans if I can get them (though there is a higher interest rate) or I’ll have to get private loans (which have an astronomical interest rate).

As far as paying these debts off, veterinarians make (on average) $63k their first year out. The monthly payment on these loans would be something like $1500-1800 a month and let me tell you, that adds up. It’s almost unlivable, especially if you also want to save for retirement or make other investments. There are some programs to help lower that amount, Income-Based-Repayment, for one, which lowers the payment and after 25 years forgives what debt you have left. The catch is that the forgiven amount is taxable as income, so you’ve got to save for it in the meantime. Also, a lot of the time, the forgiven amount ends up being the same as your loaned amount to begin with (after all the interest that has been compounding all along has been added up) so you have to pay income tax on that $100,000 you owed in the first place.

My only hope to get out of debt reasonably, is to work my ass off (probably 60+ hours a week) and start earning an income of over $100,000 a year with a production-based salary so I can get out of the IBR program as quick as I can and pay off my debt before it can be “forgiven.”

Student debt is out of control.

There are 3 things that are going to save me:

1. Not having paid for undergrad.
2. My parents’ awesome foresight in putting money in a CD for me.
3. Probably going to be working for a non-profit for 10 years. (120 payments while working full time in public service = loan forgiveness.)

yeah, i’m going to teach for a while after graduate school (if said graduate school actually occurs) for the same loan forgiveness. the four years of my undergraduate was paid for by kickbacks from my mom’s life insurance, in addition to the jobs i worked while in school, but the last year and a summer abroad were paid for by unsubsidized loans that have already doubled since graduation. i’m glad i learned spanish, but i’m pissed for how much debt i went in to be able to do research in peru that never happened because of department cuts.