Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Making a living (and paying loans)


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Posted by Sean Chisham on September 21, 2003 at 19:38:24:

In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Making a living (and paying loans) posted by dp on September 21, 2003 at 19:05:04:

Put another way, if you haven't got a handle on your life now, what convinces you that you'll get a clue down the road - when you should expect even more daunting decisions in your future?


I assume that an 18 year old high school student starting college is not the same person as the 23-26 year old graduate student about to graduate from a respectable college. Let alone the 30+ year old who is in the middle of paying back loans. People mature.

I had very little control of my life when I was 18 years old. Some would say I am still on autopilot cruising the ether, but I would like to think that I matured greatly in college and became much more fiscally responsible several years after college as paying back the loans became very very very real.

Hindsight is 20/20 and it can be difficult to look through the eyes of a present day teenager when we are pushing middle age+. Many people do indeed work their way through college with little or no debt. Why is their path any more admirable than those who chose to accept student loans and delay the payoff until they were more fiscally sound? College is a time of not just study but social activities. I can attest that poor college students working jobs while also taking out loans are no slouches. I missed out on a lot of college experiences while I was serving pancakes in Lawrence, KS. I also missed out on a higher GPA and sacrificed way too many practice hours in the name of work and sleep in order to pay for things like food and clothing. I was one of the few students that the tuba studio ever had at KU who graduated in 4 years. This is mainly because I could not afford to stretch it to 5 or 6 or more.

Student loans do NOT cover ALL life expenses. Whoever thinks you can survive for 12 months out of the year on student loans is way mistaken. Loans only cover dorms for 9 months. You need to get an apartment yearround or find other living arangements during the summer. Student loans do not feed you during the summertime. Student loans do not give you pocket money for haircuts, gasolene for the car, clothing, or tickets to the local symphony concert. Loans are partial. Loans are payed back after college. Loans are not a free ride for the lazy.

I am passionate about this as I paid a large chunk of cash attempting to pay mine back those first couple of years out then my jobs payed little. We are still paying compounded interest on mine and are paying back all of my wife's.

To be accused of somehow being less worthy because we paid for college our way while you may have chosen to pay for it another way is absurd.

sean



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