how deep should someone go into debt to finance college?
ive heard that it does not matter how deep you go and others have said that you should not go into debt for any reason But I think that nothing more than 30,000 for a 4 year degree sounds good so what do you think
Public Comments
- It depends on the school and what you are going for. I know surgeons who took on $200,000 in student loans, but that's what they had to do to get through ten years of college. Law school can also be very expensive. I was able to make it through a bachelor's with no debt and I think ideally that should be the way to do it, but obviously it isn't always possible.
- I always tend to think of these things as a Return on Investment. I think this depends largely on what you want to do. I would think about how much that potential career will pay you over the course of your life and decide if it is worth it. To me, paying to attend Harvard to become a social worker is a poor return on the investment. But going the cheap route to become a surgeon may not be a wise move either. I certainly think $30,000 for a 4 year degree is VERY reasonable. Leverage can be used very wisely and is a good way to achieve certain things. If you wanted to put that same $30,000 into a car as an "investment" I'd tell you that's a poor choice, but I think any reasonable expenditure on college is very smart. If you want to pay only cash, it could take significantly longer and put you behind others your age.
- Hi, it does matter how deep in debt you go and starting out after college with a big college loan to pay off is not the best way to start a career. These days some students do have $30k or more in loans. If you are going into a high paying field and are confident that you will get a job right away (Engineers, Doctors, Dentist, Consultant, CPA) then you are probably going to be ok. Otherwise, you should rethink your plan.
- There's actually a calculator to figure this out: http://www.finaid.org/calculators/loanpayments.phtml It depends on how much you'll be making when you get out of school. If you use the calculator for a lot of different situations, you'll notice that it usually shows that you should only take out about as much as you expect to make for your starting salary. So if the starting salary in your field is about $40,000, you shouldn't take out more than $40,000 in loans.
- I guess it depends on what kind of degree you plan to get. If you plan on getting a degree in a high paying profession (finance, engineering, law, medicine, computers, etc.) you can probably take on a lot more debt than getting one of those "feel good" degrees like in the humanities, social sciences, music, etc.
