Anonymous wrote:I'm 40 yrs old and 36 months away from paying off my $107k of student debt. I will strongly discourage my child to incur this type of debt. I have significantly diminished my lifestyle to get rid of it. My children are too young to worry about it now, but I intend to talk about financing college/grad school/major selection all as one discussion. If I had to do it over again I would've just stuck with my engineering degree from my state university undergrad.

I'm 36 and YEARS away from paying off husband's and my combined $270,000 in student loan debt. We started at $400,000 but jesus christ there is NO WAY I will encourage our children to take on this kind of debt. It is INSANE. We plan on paying for college for them and hope it will be public. We'll discourage grad school for them if we cannot afford to pay. This debt is crippling.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The computer science majors I know say what they actually learned in college was useless-- programming languages change, etc., but they learned how to program. The same is true for a good liberal arts education- you should get out of it the ability to read and think critically, and to communicate effectively, on paper and person.

It is awesome that many people are in favor of liberal arts degrees. Because it removes their children from the competition pool of our kids with useful degrees. And our kids will therefore advance further and faster.

What do you think the useful degrees are? And which jobs are you thinking of? I'd love to hear your magic plan for lifetime employment and happiness!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are paying for private college. I expect my kids to fund at least some/most of grad school. I paid for grad school myself, DH got some help from his parents, both of us had undergrad fully paid.

I am a big fan of liberal arts undergrad followed by grad school but even my confidence is wavering now that tuition is around $60k a year. We can afford it, and aren't worried about ROI, but not sure it would be worth it if my kids were borrowing to pay for it. Thankfully we will be done in 5 years.

You have to WONDER if it would be worth borrowing 240k per child to spend on undergrad where you hope they "learn" but don't acquire any hard skills? Seriously?

No one would borrow $240k for undergrad. Someone in a position to need to borrow all of it would qualify for financial aid. Or could opt to go to a school that provides non financial merit aid. There are quite a few liberal arts schools in this category.

I don't expect my kids to learn a trade in college. One plans to be a teacher, which requires a BA and likely a masters degree (to teach in public school). The other plans to get an MBA, which also requires a BA. So learning to be a computer programmer or a plumber wouldn't help either of them in their career goals.

Anonymous wrote:The computer science majors I know say what they actually learned in college was useless-- programming languages change, etc., but they learned how to program. The same is true for a good liberal arts education- you should get out of it the ability to read and think critically, and to communicate effectively, on paper and person.

It is awesome that many people are in favor of liberal arts degrees. Because it removes their children from the competition pool of our kids with useful degrees. And our kids will therefore advance further and faster.

The computer science majors I know say what they actually learned in college was useless-- programming languages change, etc., but they learned how to program. The same is true for a good liberal arts education- you should get out of it the ability to read and think critically, and to communicate effectively, on paper and person. Why send your kid to college if you just want them to learn a trade?

Anonymous wrote:They should charge less for useless degrees like liberal arts

to incentivize people to get crappy degrees?

Undergrad only if the total debt would be $30K or less. Anything more would get a very bad return on investment.

They should charge less for useless degrees like liberal arts

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm 40 yrs old and 36 months away from paying off my $107k of student debt. I will strongly discourage my child to incur this type of debt. I have significantly diminished my lifestyle to get rid of it. My children are too young to worry about it now, but I intend to talk about financing college/grad school/major selection all as one discussion. If I had to do it over again I would've just stuck with my engineering degree from my state university undergrad.

When did you acquire the debt?

Small amount in undergrad ($5k), law school 24-27, LLM 28 (partially paid our by employer). I have purchased a condo and a house on my own during this payback period so could've paid back earlier, but needed/wanted to stop renting.

Anonymous wrote:Will / have you encourage(d) your child to incur this kind of debt? Now that we are forced to admit that a degree no longer has the value that it once did, is getting a degree worth the financial risk?

Am listening to guru Susie Orman. She exposes the serious student debt dilemma.

If you listen to Suzy Orman, you deserve everything that's coming to you financially. The woman is an opportunist and an idiot.

Who says we've been "forced to admit that a degree no longer has the value it once did." Have you tried living on a high school degree only? Do you know anyone who does? How are their lives?

Anonymous wrote:I'm 40 yrs old and 36 months away from paying off my $107k of student debt. I will strongly discourage my child to incur this type of debt. I have significantly diminished my lifestyle to get rid of it. My children are too young to worry about it now, but I intend to talk about financing college/grad school/major selection all as one discussion. If I had to do it over again I would've just stuck with my engineering degree from my state university undergrad.

When did you acquire the debt?

Anonymous wrote:We are paying for private college. I expect my kids to fund at least some/most of grad school. I paid for grad school myself, DH got some help from his parents, both of us had undergrad fully paid.

I am a big fan of liberal arts undergrad followed by grad school but even my confidence is wavering now that tuition is around $60k a year. We can afford it, and aren't worried about ROI, but not sure it would be worth it if my kids were borrowing to pay for it. Thankfully we will be done in 5 years.

You have to WONDER if it would be worth borrowing 240k per child to spend on undergrad where you hope they "learn" but don't acquire any hard skills? Seriously?

We are paying for private college. I expect my kids to fund at least some/most of grad school. I paid for grad school myself, DH got some help from his parents, both of us had undergrad fully paid.

I am a big fan of liberal arts undergrad followed by grad school but even my confidence is wavering now that tuition is around $60k a year. We can afford it, and aren't worried about ROI, but not sure it would be worth it if my kids were borrowing to pay for it. Thankfully we will be done in 5 years.

I'm 40 yrs old and 36 months away from paying off my $107k of student debt. I will strongly discourage my child to incur this type of debt. I have significantly diminished my lifestyle to get rid of it. My children are too young to worry about it now, but I intend to talk about financing college/grad school/major selection all as one discussion. If I had to do it over again I would've just stuck with my engineering degree from my state university undergrad.

Will / have you encourage(d) your child to incur this kind of debt? Now that we are forced to admit that a degree no longer has the value that it once did, is getting a degree worth the financial risk?

Am listening to guru Susie Orman. She exposes the serious student debt dilemma.