Cheaper, Bigger, and Cooler Student Loans

I'VE ALWAYS WONDERED WHY IS IT SO MUCH EASIER FOR PEOPLE FROM OTHER COUNTRIES TO GET GRANTS TO ATTEND COLLEGE IN THE UNITED STATES AND NEVER HAVE TO PAY ANYTHING BACK. DO THEY HOLD JOBS OR PAY TAXES? IT DOESN'T SEEM FAIR THAT THEY CAN DO THIS. DON'T GET ME WRONG I'M FOR HELPING OTHERS AS LONG AS THEY CAN OR WILL HELP THEMSELVES AS MOST PEOPLE DO. I'M A STRUGGLING WIFE AND MOTHER THAT DOES THE VERY BEST I CAN TO PROVIDE FOR MY FAMILY. MY HUSBAND WAS ILL AND DISABLED FOR ABOUT A YEAR AND NOT ABLE TO WORK BECAUSE OF THAT FACT,SO THE ONLY INCOME WAS MY TWO PAYCHECKS A MONTH. TO DEAL WITH ALL OUR DEBTS; INCLUDING MOUNTING MEDICAL BILLS, NOT ONLY MY HUSBAND'S, BUT MINE AND MY DAUGHTER'S AS WELL, HAS BEEN AN EMOTIONAL AND DEFINITELY HARD FINANCIAL STRUGGLE. TO TRY TO GET LOANS AND GRANTS WAS VERY HARD. MY DAUGHTER EVENTUALLY RECEIVED A $1200.00 GRANT FOR THIS SECOND YEAR OF COLLEGE (THAT IS SPLIT BETWEEN SEMESTERS) WHICH WE ARE TRULY GRATEFUL, HOWEVER WE STILL HAD TO COME UP WITH ADDITIONAL FUNDS ALONG WITH STUDENT LOANS. I JUST WISH THAT AMERICAN CITIZENS HAD THE SAME ADVANTAGE AS FOREIGN STUDENTS. I'M NOT ASKING FOR A HANDOUT, I JUST NEED SOME SENSE OF THIS.

My, My, Thanks so much!

Can someone please tell me how this actually helps students? We don't need more loans, we need colleges to stop raising costs every single year. Something they will definitely do when they see that students can borrow to cover the increasing costs. State school isn't even cheap to students having to pay for it. I know my state's flagship is 15k a year, and that only includes the basics you must have. Try paying off a 60k loan and see if it's a pretty picture. It's ridiculous. The way the Job Market is, you must have a degree. I see jobs paying $12 an hour that demand a Bachelor's Degree...which you can't even pay for at $12 an hour if you wanted to.

I don't expect my education to be free. I don't expect to not have to borrow to finance my own education. All I hope for is to be able to pay for college without dooming my future, the future I hope to improve my attending college in the first place.

what Socialists are you refering to?

Clearly, those who are refering to the current US economy as being under the control of socialists, need to revisit their definition of what socialism is. Currently the US is possibly the most UN-socialistic of the major economies in the world today, based on overall distribution of the GDP, presence of a well defined welfare state and taxation rates and salary distribution. Countries such as Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, Finland, Denmark, Germany, Sitzerland, Canada, France, Belgium, and the UK have all well established welfare systems that exceed that of the US. Not suprisingly these countries all have a better distribution of social services such as education and health care, much of which is free for the entire citizenry and paid for by an increase in the taxe rate.

To the person who stated:

..."Those who complain that they "paid their loans back and therefore so should everyone else" are Socialists in a democracy. We are living through the horrifying nightmarish result of that selfish approach. These Socialists have killed the American Dream, and created an American aristocracy in the form of billionaires....

This statement is entirely contradictory, rather, it is the "selfish" approach to the US economy that has guided us towards an ultra-capitalistic state which has become "every man for themselves".

The purpose of government sponsered education is to redistribute resources to those who would otherwise be unable to aquire them. The sponsership can be small (in the form of government subsidized loans, as is the case in the US) or it can be be more substantial (in the form of government paid education).

Without question, the US has some of the best and brightest students. Unfortunately the overall assesment of our education system and the average level of education among our citizens as a group puts us well below where we should be. This is a direct result of how we prioritize education in the US. Rather than treating education (including higher education) as a social service to which every citizen is equally entitled, we have come think of college as a commodity that is only for those who have the resources and can afford it.

As previously stated, this puts the US well outside the correct definition of a socialistic society.

Student loans

The more easy money that is available for students to borrow, the more the colleges will raise tuition. A couple of years down the road, we will be back to the same situation. Then they will increase the borrowing limits again...colleges raise tuition again...and so on.

The same thing the happened to the price of housing, is happening to the price of tuition. Continued access to easy money will just bid up the price of tuition until the economic benefits of attending college are negated by the cost of attending.

student loans

I agree that the Socilaists have made the American Dream next to impossible in regards to an college education.

The stafford loans as you have written about will not help the situation but will only make it worse.

Students who have Stafford loans now are suffering from what I call "legalized loan-sharking". They get a payment book that gives them a very minimal payment to make. They add a little extra to the payment each month to help bring down the loan. Then after a year and a half they find out that they owe more then when they started. They also find out that if by some miracle they can add a couple hundred extra dollars, it cannot be put to the principle, they only are told that they have paid ahead a few months. They are penalized if they try to pay the loan off early. They are in a very difficult situation.

I am so glad that the banking system was not under Sen. Dodd's control when I had to loan my way through college.

The students don't need to take more loans under the present system it will only destroy more young people financially and direct then to loss of faith in our financial system. Hopefully they will be able to see that in spite of the "brainwashing" of the liberals, this problem was created by the wealthy socialists and not what the United States Government is really about. Our American system used to be concerned for the well being of its people, liberal-socialists don't care and do not promote the true American way.

In regards to Greenote and Virgin Money my question is how are those loans going to be set up? Will they follow the practices of the "legalized loan-sharks" or will they set it up so the Students will not be penalized for paying the loan off early?

Please, staff of U.S. News check with the students don't just get the verbage from the loan companies. Our young people need real help not new ways to financialy fleece them.

...and about co-signing for your family member's loan, beware! I know of someone who was told by Sallie Mae that when the student got a job and was on his own that the loan would/could be transferred in his name only.This was not true and obviously was a promise made to get the parent to agree to co-sign.

escalating college tuition and fees

Most colleges can significantly trim their costs by shutting down absurd courses and departments. You can go to almost any public or private college website and see such "valuable" courses and majors as "gender studies" and "sexual psychology". These offerrings are expensive to maintain and worthless in the marketplace. No, colleges should not become vocational schools, but neither should they continue to fleece students just so they can appear to be "politically correct" and "so very 21st century". Many of our smartest students won't ever finish a four-year degree, or even start college. The real losers are the gifted middle class students who won't be receiving any subsidized Stafford loans or any state grants; as usual the middle class is s______.

Reality Check

It is demoralizing to have to borrow money to earn a decent salary. This is actually a clever tax on your future income. That's why the government won't heal this festering wound. 30 years ago, we were able to work and pay our tuition, room, and board if we came from a lower class background. Not anymore. That's why the poor are now getting poorer and the middle class is shrinking and falling into the lower class. Yet, no college degree is necessary to become a billionaire.

The loans are skyrocketing to cover tuition, so it's a vicious cycle with no end in sight, except a foreseeably tragic one. Secretaries have to have 4-year degrees now because of this competition. Soon, secretaries will have to have attended Ivy League schools to compete for the lowest salaries in the top corporations. Yet, people who did go to Ivy League schools who earn great and wonderful salaries now are having choose between saving for retirement and saving for their children's tuition.

And it's even more demoralizing to make the attempt to earn a higher salary and fail, only to be saddled with a loan you can't pay back for the rest of your life. Even your Social Security retirement check will have to go to paying the loan back, whether you're sick and elderly or well. Is it possible that all these borrowers who are silent and miserable about defaulting (because they can't get ANY help) are plotting to do something crazy? In this economy?

20-30 years ago, when all we had to pay back was $50 a month, such payments were difficult because the economy was troublesome then too. Try paying it back when you start out earning $8,000 a year because you can't find a decent job after going to college. That's why so many attended college in the first place, to have a recession-proof salary. We complained then that high school diplomas used to be enough to earn a decent salary. Enter credit cards to make a bad situation worse.

So much has to be borrowed now that, essentially, we work for the federal government without benefits, or career management advice, or job placement assistance, and for life if we miss payments. That smells of indentured servitude. It is a form of socialism, whatever else the case.

Those who complain that they "paid their loans back and therefore so should everyone else" are Socialists in a democracy. We are living through the horrifying nightmarish result of that selfish approach. These Socialists have killed the American Dream, and created an American aristocracy in the form of billionaires. No doctor is necessary--the American Dream is D.O.A. already. The billionaires are making all the laws. Try getting a vote for individual rights to balance the economic playing field through Congress. Even OBAMA is ducking this issue. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting loans. But, I am glad that I did get to experience democracy before it died.

It's About Responsibility

I'm not against forgiving, but you sign a contract, you follow through. Just like I did.

It shouldn't be free - anything free isn't worth much. Sweden is full of 4 year degrees working at convenience stores. That can be a bit demoralizing.

On the other hand, it shouldn't cost so much. Anyone wanting it should be able to get it and pay for it with reasonable payments within 10 years. 4 years at 30k = 120k. That's 1k/mo for 10 years if the interest rate is zero! How are you supposed to do that while establishing a household and raising a family? Any way you slice it, it's doggone crazy! Something has to give . . .

misplacing the blame

In many social democratic countries universities are either free or students who receive high GPAs are refunded upon graduation. I think this makes good sense. The wealth exists in the U.S. to implement a system like this; unfortunately we as a society seem to prioritize education less than the rest of the advanced industrial world.

I think it's silly to blame people who couldn't afford to pay back there loans back in the day. For the past 30 years real wages for most Americans having been falling while profits have been reaching record heights. If the minimum wage were to have risen at the same rate that the average CEO's salary has since 1980 the minimum wage would be at $20 an hour. What a world we could live! The American Dream is dead and it's blood is on the hands of the wealthiest 2% of the world's population which controls 80% of the world's wealth.

about time

It is about time. However, if people 20 and 30 and moreyears ago had paid back their loans even if in only small amount we would not have gotten to this point. At one time all they had to do was pay back $50 a month. They could have done that forever if they needed to. But no, they claimed they couldn't afford to pay anything back and many got out of it. They are to blame because the repayments were to go to new student loans. Now the banks have stepped in and are charging exorbitant fees. If people had paid it when they owed it years ago.........