From The Sunday Asbury Park Press
Don't want to be mean spirited but this is insane !
http://www.app.com/article/20130707/NJNEWS/307070017/College-loan-debt-seniors?nclick_check=1
Scroll all the way down to read the entire story
In the poorest of neighborhoods you can still see signs in windows of appliance and furniture stores to buy items at $0 down. There was/is a company Granada I think, that made a fortune leasing items to people that they couldn't afford.
A college education has become one of those "must have" high ticket items that families have risked their entire financial future to finance. In relative terms, when I graduated, my SJU tuition cost about $3000 per year, and the salary for a pharmacist was $25,000. Now, SJU tuition costs about $65,000 per year, and salaries for pharmacists are about $100,000. In other words, I graduated with a starting salary of about 8 times tuition. Today, the number would be about 1.5 times.
I graduated with about 8,000 in student loan debt, which I reasoned would be easily paid off given starting salaries. The numbers worked. Today the numbers are unworkable, yet millions of American families eagerly assume unworkable debt in a feeding frenzy to gain a private education. A private education at an esteemed college or university has become a Holy grail so to speak.
When you graduate with $100,000 in debt, you delay home ownership, funding your 401K in the prime years to do it (your 20s and 30s), possibly marriage or starting a family, and definitely saving for your own children's education.
I hate to say this, but even a Catholic university like St. John's has perpetrated this on students. SJU just raised tuition ANOTHER 5%, angering some very esteemed alumni. They based their decision on tuition increases of other local schools. (Redmen season ticket holder have heard this rationale for years - ticket prices are raised in conjunction w other Big East schools).
Until Americans wake up and take their business elsewhere, to community colleges, city colleges, and state universities, this massive money grab will continue. If you don't see the connection between SJU's $400 million endowment, all the capital improvements on campus, and the illicit dealings of Harrington and Wile with the "sale" of student loans to students who can't afford them and aren't smart enough to know that, then you are missing the boat.
