In case you’ve been in a coma and haven’t heard, there is a student loan crisis. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the total student loan debt of $1.46 billion exceeds that of consumer credit card debt. Apparently, students are borrowing too much to pay for college. Of course, you could argue that maybe they’re not borrowing too much, they just don’t have jobs that will allow them to make their loan payments. Either way, it doesn’t change the fact that students are often borrowing more than they can reasonably repay.
50-50 Highlights: Colleges Where Students Are Most Likely to Graduate with Debt
I’m in the process of considering enrolling in a college counseling certificate program. Why would I want a certificate? Well, there’s the crass credentialism motivation. People seem to be impressed by official credentials and a certificate has got to be cheaper than an actual degree.
Given that very few private colleges meet 100% of financial need, the cheapest option for most low-income students will be one of their state’s public universities. There will always be some low-income students that will have their full need met at private colleges, but they will be the exception. The majority will find themselves “gapped” and forced to consider private loans to make up the difference.
I remember as a sophomore sitting in an American Literature class when the professor starting talking about the advantages of attending a large university such as the University of Texas (hook ’em) versus going to a smaller institution such as Rice. I don’t know what brought on the lecture but he was adamant that we were receiving just as good of an education as those going to Rice. Furthermore, unlike the students at Rice, we would never run out of classes to take.
