Cost of college and financial aid

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There has been some minor progress in this area. Obama implemented reforms such that federal Stafford loans would be administered directly by the government, rather than employing private middlemen to skim profits off of it while contributing nothing to the process. However, regulation of the private student loan market is still sorely lacking.

Oh, they are doing much, much more than "skimming" profits. Ask any ex-student who owes hundreds of thousands of dollars right now.

This is very much the Republican ideal.



And what are the various candidates presently proposing?

Republicans regard regulation as "evil."

Owing tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars is nobody's ideal with regard to themselves. Also, with so much debt to repay that cannot practically be repaid it is going to cause a great many people to be in an economic disaster which is bad for not only them but everyone. When there are hundreds of thousands of "overqualified" job applicants who have hundreds of thousands of dollars in loan debt, the unemployment rate will be even more absurd than it is now. It's already a blasted employer's market and it's only going to get worse.

Info-graphs for the peoples who like those things. I have larger versions but I don't know how to make them larger.

Student loans basically say...if you cannot afford college, then you should remain un-educated, go get a job at Mcdonalds or Target, shut up, buy stuff with the money you make and don't think about anything. Ok I guess that is not student loans by themselves but that seems to be the thinking behind it.

I mean the current policies pretty much ensure lower class people cannot really get anywhere......they know the college loans will be very appealing to them that is why when your school and mom are trying to convince you to go to college and make you go through all kinds of paper work don't really explain the reality of the situation and you agree to take the loans because its really the only thing worth doing with your life according to them. Either that or a more informed person might avoid going to college because they don't want to be thousands of dollars in debt when they get done.

The problems I have ran into are I went straight to college, after highschool.....I was kind of unsure about it but everyone was presurring me(I know my fault for giving into the schools and my families pressure). But yeah after the first year I started having second thoughts I tried working for a while after I dropped out but that did not work out.....and so I felt that college was really my only option if i wanted any income at all and Of course I like what I am studying but I really don't know what I am going to do about paying back the loans especially if I continue attending college.

Actually, if you can buy the textbooks of the subjects you want to learn, you can educate yourself more thoroughly than you would have time to do if entrapped in a college program. Student loans only serve to profit colleges at the expense of their cash cow students who are too hyped up to realize what papers they've signed. If you want to learn, you can learn without becoming indebted to the state. It's as simple as sitting down, reading the textbooks, doing the homework, and keeping honest with yourself about mistakes on your homework.

How should I afford the books with no income.

Well, in your statement you said McDonald's or Target were places to work. Admittedly they are soul killing imitations of Hell though. If you literally don't have money, how are you online? If someone is supporting you to be online, then see about finding textbooks online or, more hazardously, asking for money to buy used textbooks. If you have a library nearby that has textbooks and source material, or can do an interlibrary loan with a library which does, then go that route.

Not for me I could not work at that fast of a pace or deal with customers...unless I want to have a mental freak out on the job, and get fired. Or become unfocused to the extent it is noticeable...And I have college loans/grants that is my income. I live at my moms house because I cannot afford to move out and she or her boyfreind not sure which pay for internet.

No one in my family has any money to borrow me, besides I would have to pay that back to and to be honest...I don't get a whole lot out of just reading textbooks either so it would make more sense to just forget anything college related if I quit going. and maybe I would get lucky and find a job at a liqour store or smoke shop. And be able to defer my loan payments for a very long time due to makeing rather low wages.

Those say it all.

Had I only known what they were going to do in 1998, I would never have taken a dime in student loan money.

So if I quit going after this semester or the next one.......what are the chances that I can defer the payments without anyone coming after me to try and squeeze however much I owe out of the nothing that I have? I mean if I had known I had no chance of making it in the competitive career world and that college to most is just a tool to make it in that I would not have gone.

Slightly less than if you continue, depending upon how saturated the job market of your field is with people having degrees. However, you continue piling up debt as you stay in, but if there's enough of a chance you'll be employed as soon as you graduate then it may be better to continue. Might be good to contact some employers now and see what they want for requirements and if you might have met their criteria already.

There is really no garantee I would find employment either way.....I could drop out after this semester and not find a job, I could also keep going, get a degree and then not find a job as well. I also don't know of any employers of intrest.....there are a few places I could maybe enquire about a job........but that would be like smoke shops, liqour stores and other obscure types of places where the fact that I do come of as a bit weird are not a huge issue. It might be good to look into that before dropping out.....but even then I still probably would not be making enough to pay back any loans at least at first becuase I would have to try and save up a bit so I could move out.

Yeah I admit it they caught me in the college debt trap and I am not sure what exactly to do about it at this point....I guess I serve my purpose I am another college student who probably will have major difficulties paying loans back or won't be able to so the more people that happens to the more likely it is this issue will get more attention and maybe something will be done about it.

Next year will be my first taste of the US system. I dont have tuition fees but the cost of accommodation, travel and food is still really high.

At least you have Australian dollars to spend.

The "Labour" party is working against the value of that currency I would presume. Unintentionally, as with Democrats in the USA, but still probably just the same in effect.