I read this article on CNN and I had a severe reaction to it. Read it over and then read my response. Agree or disagree? I understand her plight, but at the end of the day she chose this path and had to have known that it would be difficult/impossible to pay for it. Where is the line drawn? The system needs reform of course, but come on, $115,000 in debt.?What the hell was she doing exactly to incur that much?
Clearly the loan system is predatory and takes advantage of students. The interest rates are incredible. But then again, she chose an extremely expensive school and didn’t think about how she was going to pay anything back until she got out. Sorry, you should know that you’re not going to make a lot of money right away by going into the television industry. Any 18 year old who is smart enough to get into college should know that.Why didn’t she try and get scholarship money. Why didn’t she attend a less expensive school. Why didn’t she work while attending school?It is possible to go to college without getting that far into debt. The loan system is flawed but so are tuition prices. It’s insane that colleges charge as much as they do. It’s classicism at it’s worst. But both systems are unlikely to change anytime soon. That’s why as a student (consumer) you have to be smart and do everything you can to avoid crippling debt. If you were smart enough to get into a private school in New York you should have been smart enough to know you couldn’t afford it, or at least smart enough to know that you would have $115,000 in debt that you’d need to pay off. Take some responsibility.
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I'll agree on the grounds that money responsibility starts at home. Realistically speaking, before doing ANYTHING, you should evaluate your finances and see if you can afford it today, in six months and in five years. If you can't, DON'T DO IT.
Going to a school to plunk down over $100k and then not have any idea whatsoever on how to pay it back? That's stupidity. College is expensive; trust me, I'd know. But if you need THAT kind of money and don't have any way to conceivably get it back, DON'T PUT YOURSELF IN THAT SITUATION.
If anyone's getting bailed out, it's the responsible students who actually worked out a game plan. NOT people who just absorbed money and rolled with it.
Well put Austin. People with reasonable debt I think have a legitimate gripe with the system. But people who had no planning? No, that's ridiculous.
Austin got it right on. It's all about personal responsibility. Just because you got approved for the student loans, doesn't mean you should be taking out the full amount offered. Poor planning got her where she is. I do also agree with you Rich, that the loan system needs reform. I can't imagine what or why the bank(s) qualified her for such a large amount of money and still think that they'd get their money back. She would look to me as a high risk loan. There really needs to be a tightening down on income:debt ratios. The worst part is, I bet her FICO score is in the upper 600s and she could still get approved for $30K car loan @ 6.5%. Banks wouldn't be in the position they are if they had more restrictions and/or limitations on loans.
My real issue is this. She seems to think that she had a right to go to a college that was well out of her price range. It's the same as someone buying a house they couldn't afford and then wanting help to stay in the house when they found out it was too expensive. Who is to blame, the loan or the person. I think both. She does have a legitimate argument. We're helping people who did that with housing, why aren't we helping students who have done somewhat of the same thing with student loans? The problem is we don't need to add to the list of people this country is bailing out. We need people to stand up and say I made a bad choice, it was my fault and I am going to do whatever I can to fix the situation. Then I'd be more inclined to help. I think the tone really bothered me with this article. It was just an expectation that someone else should deal with HER problem. She needs to share responsibility with the people who gave her the loan. They are both at fault here.
I seriously can't believe this surge of people wanting to blame their financial situation on someone or something else. As if they were totally lied to and now someone else should foot the bill. I'm sorry, but the sad reality is yes, you might be lied to, but it is your responsibility to find out the facts, not the greasy salesmen pointing to the 1985 Yugo GV assuring you that you're going to "love this beaut'".
In this case, or anyone else who is facing such staggering debt with absolutely no means to pay it off, I say shame on you. That is that attitude that perpetuated this whole credit mess. It is the "you should give me a raise because I deserve a 5200 square foot mansion" egomaniacal, narcissism that will doom this nation.
To Miss Samantha Hillstrom, I say yes, this is your fault. Just because you want something doesn't mean you deserve it. Not everyone is as privileged as the next. Not everyone can have a good education - or one at all. Welcome to capitalism.
As a last tangent, I have a hard time hearing someone complain about their lack of foresight. I've seen so many articles showing sad families that can't pay their mortgage, blaming it on the banks that "pushed" these loans on them. The reality is that YOU need to know your budget and what you can afford. As someone with a mortgage, I too was told that I could afford much more than I really could, but I f-ing knew better. I'm sorry, if you don't have the sort insight into your finances then maybe you just aren't ready for a $200,000 loan.
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