UGH! Student Loans

[friendofjimmyk]

I'm almost done with my bachelors and looking at enrolling in grad school. However, this wont' happen until the fall of 2013. I can't successfully apply for grad schools now and keep up the work in my current classes. So, I have to wait to apply until next year.

In the meantime, my student loans have come due and I am NOT looking forward to these payments. Once I'm back in school, they can be deferred, but frick this will be an expensive year and a half off!

[ShadowBall]

Student loans are a bitch and a half to deal with - I repaid mine for less than a year before I was thrown into grad school. And I am not looking forward to repaying them again when I have no job and when most of my loans are private (meaning income-based repayment options don't apply). The worst part is your payments are often applied to interest first and then to the balance, so you're stuck in a lifelong cycle of repayment that will never end. Hopefully your lender isn't the same one I have because they will ruin your life and not give a goddamn about it.

I've been looking for all kinds of ways to get out of paying them too, especially since I'll probably have another $40K tacked on from grad school.

I hope you will be able to keep a job while in grad school too. I've been applying for jobs ever since I got accepted and absolutely no one wants to hire me or keep me hired when they hear I need time off a few times a year for school.

Sorry if I'm being a downer - just in my own experience, I've found undergrad and grad school to be pretty worthless and more detrimental to finding work than beneficial. In any case, best of luck with finishing up your bachelor's degree as well as enrolling in grad school when that time comes.

[friendofjimmyk]

It almost seems like a no-win situation.

[ShadowBall]

I know...you go to college because you want to acquire special skills in hopes of getting a good job/career and making enough money to live...maybe even have some left over to live comfortably. Then you find the reality is these fucking loans wreck your life. If you don't pay them because you can't afford them, lenders will ding your credit and maybe freeze your bank accounts until you're up to date on payments.

Then when you've got your credit in the shit house, you can't get loans for anything else like a car or a house, you might not be able to get an apartment and some employers may not even hire you. Now how the fuck can you be expected to repay loans when the lenders are making you an undesirable potential employee?

Forgiveness programs are a joke too - yeah, you can go into the Peace Corps or teach in the ghetto, but you need to do it for years and years, and even then it will only forgive your balance partially.

This is why I often discourage people from going to college unless they can get their entire balance paid for in full by scholarships, grants, or employers (or, if you have a college fund from the Bank of Mom & Dad). Most of the time, it's just not worth it and it will drive you into financial ruin you will never ever escape.

I've contemplated intentionally disabling myself to try and get my loans forgiven, or possibly leave the country and just quit paying. For many people, that's the only way they can afford to live once they've been burdened by student debts.

[FormerCallingCardRep]

If all goes well, Little Bits is going to be able to get her degree without student loans. Right now it appears that she will have approximately $32,000 in scholorships and grants out of the $33,000 she will need per year.