I feel sooo stressed over these student loans

I took them out when I was younger and more naive.

and now I have no clue what to do, they really pile up!

I wish I had gone straight into the workforce, college degrees getting you more money can be such a dream a lot of the time. So many of my friends who went straight to work have more money than most of my friends who went to college.

I really do feel helpless and limited in what I can do at the moment with these damn student loans creeping in.

I know last year I said "loans - never again"

and that sticks. I mean, I was a dumb 18/19/20 year old, took out to many of them.

At 23 I realize that is a mistake but am not sure what can be done. I can't even just "suck it up and pay" because they want SO MUCH per month.

Frustrated to live in one of the only countries that requires SO MANY loans...

 

it's one of those things: you chose your path, now you gotta walk it. no one REQUIRED you to choose the school and the loan. just a thought.

 

Yah you choose your path (yada yada). But when you are younger, you seek advice so that path, to an extent, is forged with the advice of those closest to you.

It was me who choose the path, but also all the people who filled my head with post college degree glory. At 18/19/20 I was young and impressionable and all I was told was that...college = higher paying job (BS).

Of course parents and guidance counselors will say that, but it is all a dream.

Plus there is so much more I realize now.

 

i'm really not all that worried with my outstanding student loans right now. they can wait

 

As long as you pay SOMETHING every 250 days passed due (1 year+250 days) I don’t think they can put you in default.

Most people I know send them $10-$20 every 500 days or so.

Not sure of the exact rules thay don’t like to tell you about those, but that is what myself and a lot of people I know do and have never gone default yet.

I have been hoping the place that holds my student loans might go bankrupt with all the other lenders not likely but it’s a good dream. My student loan is defiantly toxic.

 

You can ask to consolidate your student loans, into one larger loan and thus pay a single interest rate on them.

 

I remember when my brother was first going to school, like every day I'd hear him yell that he was going to torch the loan people... they have so many kinks and faults, plus the whole paying back thing sucks.

In Ontario, if you use the "Ontario Student Assistance Program" you apparently can't work because they'll take the money off what they give you. I don't understand how you're supposed to pay them back if you can't fucking work? Most programs are two to five years, if you can't work during the yearly loans you'll be paying it off forever.

 

I'm in the same position. My freshman and sophmore year, I went to a 30K a year school, almost entirely on loans. I dropped out and went to the community college, with albeit lower student loans but loans nonetheless. Now what should be my last year in school, I am a dropout who keeps getting notices about loans that are due. I seriously get a new one in the mail almost daily. I didn't keep track of how many loans I had or where I took them out at. At least you have a degree to go with the debt. You can always defer them, and pay just the interest, until you get more job stability.

 

It's disgusting what they charge you folks in the USA for student tuition.

 

Ughhh... Only in the USA (and I guess England and Norway too)

 

the school i went to is only a few grand less than harvard per year...yet no where near the quality :cheers2:

blargh

 

Honestly, how old were you Samanthia when you were expected to pay $30,000 to attend school?

I would say 85% of teenagers working full time couldn't even come up with that kind of money. That's just robbery.

 

I read somewhere that Harvard's tuition is basically free to those whose families make under such and such amount of money.

 

Eeeek, Chris. A few grand? Like how much?

I pay $5,500 tuition a year for a full semester and attend one of the best Universities in the country. I've never met someone who paid more than $14,000 to live in rez, have a meal plan and attend school.

 

They charge us this money because of the dorms, new buildings, huge computer labs and other facilities and to keep the sports teams up and running and lucrative. Things that many European campuses do not have (I have seen some in France at least and heard about other campuses in other areas).

I know for a fact my university is 5-6 million in the red since last year and yet they: a. Build a new building SOLEY for elderly students b. Redo the basketball court c. Put TV screens on campus so all students know where the bus is between Portland campus and the other campus (gee, would venture to say it is somewhere in the middle of the 20 mile route) d. Put the lunch/dinner menus on a TV screen on campus for the students. And all sorts of other nonsense. Yet here I am struggling to pay while they aimlessly spend their money granted to them bu government and rich alums. That is part of the reason I despise this situation now because they university sucks with money and is likely why it will be hard to negotiate with them.

Plus out of state pays WAY more, a Connecticut person pays more than a Canadian to go to school in Maine for cripes sake!

 

My university charges 19,000 a year for out of state. I think it is under 10,000 for in state. I think university of Maine even charges like 6000.

Whats kills many American college students is, a. going out of state (which is bogus anyways considering this is the UNITED states) b. going private (for whatever reason).

 

You ever been to Uconn? Yale campus?

 

Yes and yes.

why?

Uconn for CT citizens is nothing. Yale, being an ivy league is another story.

 

I waited until I was in my 30's to go to college. I have $30,000 in student loans, and it sucks to have to pay them, but I am so grateful for the opportunity I had by getting the approval for those loans and the chance to go to college.

Yea, debt sucks. Life, and student loan payments, goes on.

 

just looking at tuition alone - not room and board, meal plans, etc...just tuition

harvard is only another roughly 6k than the school i went to. thats for this this year. my school - ~26000 - harvard ~32000. it was closer when i was a freshman and such i believe.

now when you add in all the other stuff, harvard is well beyond my school. but based on tuition alone, its much closer

so yea...huge ranges in prices for schools around the US, especially if its a private school. public schools are cheaper though, and thats where i'll be going to finish up