Useless degrees and student loans for same....

[JohnnyReb]

They're getting an education alright.....and I don't feel sorry for them. I had to pay for my degree from the school of hard knocks and it was an education I didn't forget.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/9-unbelievable-student-loan-horror-stories-165512874.html

[rich_t]

Don't sign any loan paperwork until you understand what is in it.

Don't go whining about interest rates and fees that you agreed to accept.

[formerlurker]

My problem with these stories is that they chose to go to a school with exorbitant tuition/fees.    Community/state colleges beneath them for some reason.    Owing over $100K is pure insanity that they WILLINGLY signed up for.

 

[NHSparky]

Sadly, FL--even state public schools are pushing $20K/year for tuition, and more if you actually want a useful degree like engineering, science, or business at UNH will cost you (in tuition alone) another couple grand a year, plus the extra costs associated with technical texts.

Barely worth it at this point.

[DumbAss Tanker]

My problem with these stories is that they chose to go to a school with exorbitant tuition/fees.    Community/state colleges beneath them for some reason.    Owing over $100K is pure insanity that they WILLINGLY signed up for.

 

There's actually kind of a weird logic to it that they get sucked into.  Only a few people are actually going to get jobs in esoteric fields, so in a way it makes sense to get the degree from as high a prestige an institution as possible, and that's certainly what the Ivy League and its near cousins peddle to attract the suckers.  It's a con game of course, because doing a great interview and the chance of being in the right place at the right time for such rare job openings are really the most important factor, followed closely by actual work product you can show, followed somewhat more distantly by grades, and followed in last place by who issued the degree.

[Celtic Rose]

I'll be honest, I took out some massive loans to return to school, and I'm a little worried about paying them off come next May (when my first payment will be due) but I hardly think that it will be as traumatic as those stories make it seem.  I know that with my degree I'll be able to get a good job. 

There is a lot more going on in those stories than student loans. A lot of poor decision making is on display there.

(on edit: I have been making a lot of typos lately.  Please forgive me)

[DumbAss Tanker]

There is a lot more going on in those stories than student loans. A lot of poor decision making is on display there.

^ This.

[zeitgeist]

Sadly, FL--even state public schools are pushing $20K/year for tuition, and more if you actually want a useful degree like engineering, science, or business at UNH will cost you (in tuition alone) another couple grand a year, plus the extra costs associated with technical texts.

Barely worth it at this point.

Check the prices here: http://www.fullsail.edu/admissions/tuition


Lots of people go to places like this and find out the best they can do is a burger joint.  It happens.   You look at the cost then hit the tab about potential income and it looks so good.  Not everyone gets the top jobs, everyone gets the tuition payments.   

[T-Monay820]

Debttired is the only one I found some sympathy for, but this was confusing: "I now owe $15,000 more than I borrowed...."

Isn't that how a loan works? You don't pay back exactly what was owed, otherwise no one would ever loan you money. Of course, I also have to ask why he got a PhD to teach public schools. I'll admit I don't really know squat about being a teacher, but I know I had a buddy with just a BA who taught public schools straight out of college. I think he did Teach for America.

And then the final one is interesting in the sense that he can't afford anything, but apparently has the money to pay for internet? Culinary school for $60K? Really? I have limited sympathy.

[NHSparky]

$60 K to be taught what I learned from watching Food Network for free.

A (blank) and his (blank) are soon (blank.)

[DefiantSix]

...I have repaid them over $61,000 (over 14 years). I think I should be done now, but according to Sallie Mae I still owe $25,000. A Sallie Mae employee directed me to write the legal department and ask to have my loan written off and to appeal if they denied. They denied, stating that federal government regulation prevents them from writing off the balance of the loan.

When I talked to the Sallie Mae employee and said I was confused about why on most months more of my payment goes to interest than principal... she chuckled and said 'We certainly don't go out of our way to put that in big bright red letters across the front page'."

What a maroon!!!    Why in the hell do you think I stayed AWAY from student loans in the first damned place, Mary?  Took me 8 years to complete my degree, but guess how deep in debt I was when I did that? 

[Karin]

About that $60,000 Culinary arts degree:

I was lied to about the terms of the private student loan. After completing the program, my first job in the culinary field paid $10 per hour.

Well, yeah. 

How long have these articles been floating around now?  These stories are not unusual, as horrifying as they are.  This bubble has been inflating for quite some time now, and I'm seeing a terrible lack of basic research and questioning.  Cost/benefit is not rocket science.  The one public school teacher making $50K, but has a PhD.  What did this PhD buy her? Cost her? The whole thing is maddening, you just have to wonder how people get roped into this nightmare. 

Was listening to Dave Ramsey once, a chick phoned in, her husband was going to take out a student loan for $100,000 to study "Spanish."  WTF for?  To teach at a high school?  I tell you, sometimes I just want to knock some sense into people from sea to sea. 

[Wineslob]

I was lied to about the terms of the private student loan. After completing the program, my first job in the culinary field paid $10 per hour.

Hence the "reason" for the OWS crowd.

Abject stupidity.

[Karin]

I know sometimes it seems that the country is chock-full of idiots and simpletons who do this sort of thing (and vote Obama), but there are 5,800+ comments with the article.  All of them I'm reading so far are common-sense, knowledgable, and wise.  They're talking like conservatives, too.  No whiny babies there, saying, "but I wanted to go to my ideal school and pursue my dreeeeeeams with no stress!!!!"
 

[NHSparky]

Here's what freakin kills me--for every Emeril, Alton Brown, or Geoffery Zakarian celeb chef, there's a shitload of minimum or just above same slugs grinding it out in the kitchens of America.

Why do you think those chefs on CHOPPED are so friggin thrilled to win $10K?  Cause that represents several months pay for them!

I've never failed to be amazed at the "logic" of kids who thought a 900 SAT (when it was two scores, not three as now) would get them into a top-tier school with a scholarship, or the slug with the 2.0 GPA in Comparative Navel Gazing thought people would be falling over each other trying to hire him at a six-figure starting salary, when in reality that $40K/year Ivy League degree gave them enough of a "boost" to be a barista at a Starbucks just off campus making $20K/year.

[Eupher]

Minor discussion point:

Alton Brown is not a trained chef. He could be due to the knowledge he's amassed, but he never got his ticket.

Carry on.

[Celtic Rose]

Minor discussion point:

Alton Brown is not a trained chef. He could be due to the knowledge he's amassed, but he never got his ticket.

Carry on.

That proves the point of the discussion.  It isn't the degree on paper that determines success.  Making it big, especially in niche fields, is a combination of talent, hard work, luck, and who you know. 

[NHSparky]

And another interesting Wiki-based factoid I learned today: Zakarian filed for bankruptcy and is being sued by his former employees for shorting them wages.  Go figure.

[Eupher]

That proves the point of the discussion.  It isn't the degree on paper that determines success.  Making it big, especially in niche fields, is a combination of talent, hard work, luck, and who you know. 

Yup.

In Alton's case, IIRC, he was associated with the film industry in some sort of way, but had a more than a passing interest in the science of food. He was able to combine both his passion and his training in the form of a program that the Food Network picked up.

I don't know that he's doing that show anymore - previous shows are rerun on the Cooking Channel - but he hosts the Iron Chef show and whatever else they can rope him into.

In any event, he ain't hurting for money. He's done well for himself.

[RobJohnson]

I know people that would load up on credits, get the loan money, and then drop credits.

Then they wonder why their loan payments are twice as much as their peers.

[vesta111]

I know people that would load up on credits, get the loan money, and then drop credits.

Then they wonder why their loan payments are twice as much as their peers.

Smartest people I know who go into the food business are the few kids that are accepted into Job Corp.

These kids get their GED and training in how to work in a kitchen. Those that graduate then go to comunity college to get more training in healthy and safety handling food.  The kids work in food at minimun wage but still can handle night courses, and if needed a student loan is not all that great.

Next step is to start checking into Private or public hospitals for cooks with some certification required.  The State jobs, cooking for the jails and prisons, State run nursing homes, all with low pay at first but a chance to retire in 25-30 years or go beyond the kitchen into an office job.  Keeping up the night classes in all aspects of food handling can become a page turner in ones life.   

Most everyone that spends thousands of dollars to go to some fancy dancy cooking Academy finds there are few jobs out there in the private sector unless they work for family or friends of family.    So easy to be replaced but those with State Jobs are secure in their job unless they show gross negligence.

Food handling and preparation is a science of sort, one cannot just learn it and head out, one needs to keep up on the new foods and handling aspects and that does not leave one with $120,000 in student loans.