70% of college students/parents don't consider income when borrowing

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Then we shouldn't be allowed to get married at 18. I don't like the double standard of being mature to marry, drink, drive, bear arms. It's weird that we should be 25 to drink, yet how many people are pregnant before 18 or right after?

It's just strange that we hold such a double standard instead of making 18 the age for everything.

[disneysteve]

Then we shouldn't be allowed to get married at 18. I don't like the double standard of being mature to marry, drink, drive, bear arms. It's weird that we should be 25 to drink, yet how many people are pregnant before 18 or right after?

It's just strange that we hold such a double standard instead of making 18 the age for everything.

I think that is comparing apples, oranges and bananas.

How a drug affects someone is partly age-based so I don't see what that has to do with the other things you mentioned. Some things are about emotional maturity. Others are about physical maturity.

[Mike75]

Its about marketing

Have you ever noticed these loan adds on TV? They never talk about career prospects of your kids and how will he/she be able to repay the loan? They work on our feelings of guilt about not being able to afford to send our kids to college....

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Tuition loan ads on TV? No, I've never heard of those. Perhaps they do not advertise on TV in my area.

[nmboone]

Wow this thread is a bit depressing!!

A. Yes I absolutely hate paying back those loans but I took out however much I needed to get through school! And without a thought as how I would pay it back. I believe an education is extremely important and was worth every dime. If I find myself in a bad predicament I will do what I must.

B. I took almost two years to go back to school. All that time off working at crappy jobs made me want to go back to school more!

C. I will be 27 in two months and still do not know what I want to do. Seriously DS EVERYONE you knew knew what they wanted to be in life? Then what the hell is wrong with ME? I change what I would like to do every other day!!

[disneysteve]

nmboone:

A. You took out what you needed to get through school. So did I. I think the point being made is that students and their parents don't consider the end result when choosing the school. Does it make sense to go to a school that is 40K/year to get a social work degree and have a job making 35K/year? Or would it make more sense for that student to go to a state school for 15K/year? Either way, the student might have to borrow their way through, but at least at the cheaper school, the debt accumulated would be affordable to repay.

C. I was one of those kids in the advanced classes, AP, gifted program, etc. So yes, pretty much all of my close friends were college-bound and career-oriented. And from what I know (thanks to Facebook), virtually all of them ended up in their intended career. I know there were plenty of kids who didn't. Just among my immediate circle of friends, almost all did.

[elessar78]

I certainly did not consider the long term ramifications when choosing my major. I wanted to do something I was passionate about. Unfortunately, what you're passionate about at between 18-22 may not exactly be the same thing when you're 30.

I don't think my wife did either. She spent the money for grad school into a field that's not very lucrative. I think we were both idealistic when we were younger and now the value of pragmatism is catching up with us.

If I had to do it over, I would definitely do more research into the end result. Try to figure out what kind of life I wanted down the road and what vehicle would get me there. (Interesting note: I read somewhere that the word "career" is from the french word carriere which means "carrier"... I like the idea that it's something that takes you from one place to another.)

Now I'm in my 30s, I'm trying to figure out if I need to change my path or just up my motivation in my current career.