Student Loan Fugitives

LikeAnOpeningBandForTheSun

an art or music education can be worth it, but the degrees are pretty meaningless. for every art job i've ever had, no one asked me if i had a degree (i dont), all that matters is how good your portfolio is, and the money is the same whether you have a degree or not. its the same with music. a degree in those fields is just a piece of paper.

JOEJOEJOE

I agree that everyone should be able to go to college, but people need to do a bit of planning ahead of time:

If your dream is to get a masters in music, you should realize that a high-paying job may be difficult to find once you graduate, so the debt you incur may be more difficult to pay-off then it might be for someone who gets a more practical degree.

If you know that your debt service may be a problem, go to a cheaper school.

If you have your heart set on getting a Masters in English lit, realize that you may have a difficult time finding a snazzy job afterwards.

Its important to follow your dreams, but it is just as important to be practical in the pursuit.

mammasan

People need to be smart about their choice of schools. I was accepted to NYU but I knew that my Pell Grant and the little bit of money my parents had put aside for my college wouldn't be near enough to pay for the tuition. I sure as hell didn't want to be paying off college loans till I was 80. So I decided to go to a school that wasn't as expensive, St. John's University. People really need to consider how they will pay, and if they want to be burdened with, tens of thousands of dollars in loans after they graduate.

And I know this is very judgmental of me but someone has to be a complete idiot to accumulate 70K worth of student loans to study music. What the fuck are you going to do with a degree in Music.

Kel Varnsen

mammasan wrote:

People need to be smart about their choice of schools. I was accepted to NYU but I knew that my Pell Grant and the little bit of money my parents had put aside for my college wouldn't be near enough to pay for the tuition. I sure as hell didn't want to be paying off college loans till I was 80. So I decided to go to a school that wasn't as expensive, St. John's University. People really need to consider how they will pay, and if they want to be burdened with, tens of thousands of dollars in loans after they graduate.

On top of that people entering University need to realize that no one really cares where you did your undergraduate. No one really tells you this when you are in high school. But when you think about it most careers where you need a degree most people just care that you have the degree and you are competent at the job. I don't think once since I have graduated where the school I went to made any difference in anything, and no one has ever asked me what my GPA was.

And if you are going for a career where you need a post-graduate degree, no one still cares where you got your bachelors. I mean when was the last time you cared about where your doctor or lawyer did their premed or prelaw. If you care at all you care about where they went to medschool or law school. I mean what is better premed at Harvard and your MD from Hollywood Upstairs Medical College or the opposite?

Plus a bunch of my friends have done masters degrees, and to get into grad schools even then most schools don't really care where you did your undergrad. As long as you have the degree and can do well on the required aptitude tests. It is a bonus if you can get grant funding.

mammasan

Kel Varnsen wrote:

On top of that people entering University need to realize that no one really cares where you did your undergraduate. No one really tells you this when you are in high school. But when you think about it most careers where you need a degree most people just care that you have the degree and you are competent at the job. I don't think once since I have graduated where the school I went to made any difference in anything, and no one has ever asked me what my GPA was.

And if you are going for a career where you need a post-graduate degree, no one still cares where you got your bachelors. I mean when was the last time you cared about where your doctor or lawyer did their premed or prelaw. If you care at all you care about where they went to medschool or law school. I mean what is better premed at Harvard and your MD from Hollywood Upstairs Medical College or the opposite?

Plus a bunch of my friends have done masters degrees, and to get into grad schools even then most schools don't really care where you did your undergrad. As long as you have the degree and can do well on the required aptitude tests. It is a bonus if you can get grant funding.

Completely agree. When I started interviewing after college my friends who went to the School Of Visual Arts kept telling me that I would never find a job as a graphic designer because i didn't go to a design school. How wrong they where and I only paid 1/3 of what they did for tuition.

Kel Varnsen

JOEJOEJOE wrote:

I agree that everyone should be able to go to college, but people need to do a bit of planning ahead of time:

I think I would modify you statement to say everyone who really wants to go to college should be able to. I think a lot of times spots and funding are used up on people who don't really want to be at university but they either think they should, or have nothing better to do. I went to University in BC in the 1990's. Tuition was really cheap since there was like a 7 year tuition freeze. Except you had tons of people who I got the feeling were there to hang out and play hackey sack, or just take random classes. Now it bugged me since it is possible that those people were taking up spots from people who really wanted to go to university but couldn't get in or couldn't pay. Plus the people who were there to hang out were always the people who were either on student government (because they had the time to do it) or were the ones who complained the most about high tuition fees.

justam

cincybearcat wrote:

Perhaps students loans should be based on what you are studying...you know, making it harder for a music major to get a loan then say a nursing student.

Isn't a fundemental basis of loaning money having a loanee able to repay the loan?

I know you're joking, but that's NOT what I was implying. I was saying that the students need to be responsible for what they are borrowing.

I have a doctorate in music, but I did NOT borrow a huge amount of money to go to school. My three degrees all together only left me with about $15,000 worth of debt. I had to work all through grad school but it was worth it to be relatively unencumbered afterwards.