Quote:
Originally Posted by Arles
I think this is a good point. But, you have ways to cover that non-tuition $15K. You can get roomates or get a job. Whether you go to college or not, you will have to pay for a place to live. On-campus housing is usually cheaper than just renting on the outside. I think you could swing 1K a month for your portion of rent, food and expenses with roommate(s). At that point, if you could get a job making $500 a month, that $15K drops in half. To me, the tough expense to justify is 15+K a year for tuition and books as an in-state student. If you can knock that down to 8K, you really only need about $40-50K in loans without scholarships. And, if you earn a scholarship or work more, you could easily get by with a 25-30K student loan tab at the end.
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re: housing costs on vs off campus -- varies. Last two years off campus (townhouse, 4 total people) have been cheaper by a couple thousand a year than on campus was. That's going to vary a lot I imagine, due to both the on campus situation case by case as well as the off campus availability case by case.
re: $1k/month. fwiw, that seems awfully low vs reality, at least for decent sized schools. Using Ole Miss again, it's roughly $500/month for meal plan (common for at least freshmen), plus a min. of $500/month for off-campus housing (about $750/month for on-campus). And the meal plans aren't all-inclusive, you still eat weekends on your own dime typically. So that figure is passed before literally ANY "expenses". Parking permit alone is about $50/month.
re: $15k vs $8k ... Again, just using real figures close to me (with the full YMMV caveat) ... It's already $12k for UGA and $6500 for Univ. of West Georgia and about $5500 for Univ of North Georgia. Congrats, problem solved I guess
Here's the thing: too often "student loan debt" is being euphemistically used to encompass all the costs associated with not only tuition but also ordinary living expenses, as well as
choices made that escalate the cost. It also fails to account for the trend of "four year degrees" approaching six years to complete AND the failure of 1/3rd to one half to complete even after six years. That failure, in turn, denies the supposed benefit of higher wages for degreed individuals, hindering their ability to repay the debt they voluntarily incurred.