Excessive Student Loan Debt - Bad Decision

Many college students these days are extending themselves (in the future) for a good education. Watch TV and you'll see quite a few commercials from private companies offering students loans up to $40,000 per year. Many students are coming out of expensive private schools with $50k, $75k, or $100k or more in loan debt and lucky to have a job making $25k a year. Many of these students were fooled by society or their parent's generation to get a good education at "any" cost. "It'll pay off in the future!" Well I'm here to tell you that for many students, it probably won't pay off or for at least 20 years after graduating.

The cost of college has gotten prohibitively expensive, yet many people from past generations think of college as a way to guarantee a spot in life above most. With so many college students and graduates, it's hard not to feel as though a Bachelor's degree is the new high school diploma, while a graduate degree is the new college degree and even that I wonder about some days.

I think it's important for college students to look at the future and not get caught up in the "getting a college degree at any cost" mentality. I came out of college with around $15,000 in student loan debt with some additional credit card debt. I've since consolidated the loans with a rate of 3.375 and have slowly paid the balance down to around $12,000. I wish I didn't have the loans, but the interest rate is quite low and therefore low on my list to pay off. And, since I've gone back to graduate school, these loans have automatically gone into deferment. I'm not sure I like the idea of these loans automatically going into deferment for me. One of the loans is still accruing interest and it seems as though these companies like the idea of you delaying payment for as long as possible. I can't imagine having over $100,000 in student loan debt! Good luck to the future generations!