Is 4 Years of College Worth A Lifetime of Debt?

By: Shanice Miller, founder of DebtFreeCollegeGrad.com

Recently, there have been a lot of articles surfacing about skyrocketing college costs and the effects that student loan debt has on graduates. Usually, the student loan debt that graduates end up with is so abundant that it puts a serious burden on them. The burden is so great that it poses the question, "Is 4 Years of College Worth A Lifetime of Debt?"

Yahoo! Finance spotlighted "7 College Graduates Whose Lives Were Wrecked by Student Loan Debt." These 7 people's stories and experiences can help you be the judge--- Is 4 years of college worth a lifetime of debt?

"Stephanie Snyder, 44, graduated in 2005 with a B.A. in Public Administration. She worked three jobs at one time to pay down her $38,000 student loan balance."

"Carla Ruiz, 53, earned her MBA in 2006. Today, she's $120,000 in debt and lives in an attic apartment."

"Kyle Laffin, 25, asked his dad to co-sign a $100,000+ private student loan for a B.A. in accounting. Now, he has $1,200 monthly payments. His dad is working two jobs and dipping into his retirement savings to help him pay it down." 
  
"Since earning his MBA in 2004, Michael Pope, 38, has been bankrupt, homeless, and unable to find a job that pays well enough to tackle his $140,000 loan debt."

I've only summarized 4 of the 7 people in the Yahoo! finance article whose lives were wrecked by student loans. (To read the full article, go to: finance.yahoo.com/news/7-college-graduates-whose-lives-were-wrecked-by-student-loan-debt-151703790.html?page=all)

So back to the question, "Is 4 years of college worth a lifetime of debt?" After reading these stories, I think not. College is supposed to help you obtain a better life, but being submerged in debt will not help you accomplish that goal.

Would you trade a lifetime in debt for a college degree? Leave your comment below.

Testimony from A DebtFreeCollegeGrad.com Graduate

By: Shanice Miller, founder of DebtFreeCollegeGrad.com

I met Floyd Clark in April 2013. He told me that his son, Tavion Clark, was considering joining the military because he didn't have any money to go to college and didn't want to put the burden on him [his father]. Floyd really hoped that his son wouldn't join the military so he asked for my advice. I revealed to Floyd and his son some of my scholarship and grant secrets. Now, it's September 2013 and Tavion Clark is attending Old Dominion University in Virginia. All of his college expenses are covered and he is even receiving refund checks back from the college. I'm so glad that Tavion really followed my instructions and took his scholarship search seriously. In less than 5 months, Tavion went from having no money for college to having more than enough.

Parents, Are You To BLAME for Stafford Loans?

In the last post titled, "Parents, Are You To Blame for Student Loan Debt," we discussed the rapidly increasing amount of student loan debt through Stafford loans.

There we posed the question: who is actually to blame for all of this student loan debt that has been accumulating over the years through Stafford loans. If you didn't get to read the first part of the article, you can view it here.

In this continuation of the article, we will further discuss the student loan debt crisis and who is to blame for all of these Stafford loans.

Reminiscing back on my college days, I remember a particular roommate that my friend had. Right after the semester started he was so excited because he was getting money back from the college. Yes, refund checks are wonderful. But, not this refund check. See this student wasn't getting a refund check back from an abundance of scholarships, he was getting a refund check back for an abundance of loans--- Stafford loans! Now that isn't good at all.

Right now some people might be wondering how can that be. Let me explain. When you sign up for Stafford loans or any other loans, you can either chose to sign up for the maximum amount that you are eligible for or you can just opt to take out what you need. Now some people would take out the maximum amount of Stafford loans to use for other expenses like books and living expenses.

This particular student would take out the maximum amount of money that he qualified for in Stafford loans. He would use some of the Stafford loans on books, but with the rest of it, he would buy things that made him happy like clothes, video games, or the latest phone. At the time he just saw it as "free money" but that "free money" was actually a debt tab that he was quickly increasing.

I'm pretty sure he wasn't the only student that did this. Parents, students do NOT need to take out the maximum amount of money that they qualify for in Stafford loans or any other student loans. You should only take out what is necessary to cover tuition and the school fees--- nothing more. Taking Stafford loan money and using it for the child's pleasure is a sure way to be swimming in debt upon college graduation.

In the next post, we will follow up on one last reason why we have a student loan debt crisis and how you can avoid your student from being part of that statistic so stay tuned!

By: Shanice Miller, Founder of DebtFreeCollegeGrad.com