doidare:

pantslessprogressive:

“Of course, it’s not enough for us to increase student aid.  We can’t just keep subsidizing skyrocketing tuition; we’ll run out of money.  States also need to do their part, by making higher education a higher priority in their budgets.  And colleges and universities have to do their part by working to keep costs down.  Recently, I spoke with a group of college presidents who’ve done just that.  Some schools re-design courses to help students finish more quickly.  Some use better technology.  The point is, it’s possible.  So let me put colleges and universities on notice:  If you can’t stop tuition from going up, the funding you get from taxpayers will go down. 

Higher education can’t be a luxury – it’s an economic imperative that every family in America should be able to afford.” - President Obama

itislaw.gif

I’ll be $100,000 in debt after vet school. Mississippi State is raising tuition by the greatest amount of all vet schools next year, while at the same time the government won’t give me the $8500 in subsidized loans anymore. I’d have just the same capped amount of unsubsizided loans I’ve had in the past years to pay tuition and live on if I didn’t have a little from my parents coming my way. But who knows? It may not be enough! There’s still grad plus loans if I can get them (though there is a higher interest rate) or I’ll have to get private loans (which have an astronomical interest rate).

As far as paying these debts off, veterinarians make (on average) $63k their first year out. The monthly payment on these loans would be something like $1500-1800 a month and let me tell you, that adds up. It’s almost unlivable, especially if you also want to save for retirement or make other investments. There are some programs to help lower that amount, Income-Based-Repayment, for one, which lowers the payment and after 25 years forgives what debt you have left. The catch is that the forgiven amount is taxable as income, so you’ve got to save for it in the meantime. Also, a lot of the time, the forgiven amount ends up being the same as your loaned amount to begin with (after all the interest that has been compounding all along has been added up) so you have to pay income tax on that $100,000 you owed in the first place.

My only hope to get out of debt reasonably, is to work my ass off (probably 60+ hours a week) and start earning an income of over $100,000 a year with a production-based salary so I can get out of the IBR program as quick as I can and pay off my debt before it can be “forgiven.”

Student debt is out of control.