"These New SAT Questions Are A Little TOO 'Relevant'"

[kpete]

[Electric Monk]

1. LOL, that's a good one. K&R

[Art_from_Ark]

2. $80,000 loan at 8% interest?

Yikes!

[MissB]

3. Sorta not possible. Max federal student loans are about $27k spread over 4 years.

And most college students cannot get more than that without a cosigner. Parents can take out PLUS loans, but those would be in the parents' names.

But yeah, even state universities will cost nearly $80k for four years.

[Art_from_Ark]

4. But you are only talking about federal student loans, right?

It's been a while since I had to deal with student loans, but when I was going to college there were two types of loans available-- NDSL (National Direct Student Loans) and private loans. Interest on the NDSL loans was 2% and didn't start accruing until 9 months after I had left school. As far as I know, the amount of NDSL loans was limited, but the amount of the other, higher-interest loans, was not.

[MissB]

5. Very true. But kids need a cosigner for the private ones, since no credit history exists.

And I suppose some parents or other adults simply do cosign!

[mike_c]

6. I graduated 20 yrs ago w/$75K debt at 8% interest....

Don't tell me it isn't possible. After almost 20 yrs of payments, I've managed to bring the principle down by less than $10K, and I'm only two or three years from retirement. In other words, like the student in the cartoon, I will not live long enough to see that debt repaid. Not even close.

That's LIFETIME servitude. The cost of education for poor people in America.

[whopis01]

8. Wow - when I read your post I thought that couldn't possible be right

Or I thought you must be paying a small amount on it. But I was completely wrong.

$500 a month on that loan at that rate would do nothing but cover the interest (and that is assuming yearly compounding, which I bet it is not). That is amazing.

[mike_c]

10. my payments are actually closer to $750/month....

Like I said, lifetime servitude. Luckily I've enjoyed my career, but it's going to end in a few years, with tens of thousands left to repay. I don't know what I'm going to do then.

[whopis01]

11. It really is amazing.

I was just talking to a young fellow the other day who had gotten a degree from a private tech school place - a place that made it very easy for him to get loans. In fact they did all the paperwork and he had to do virtually nothing other than sign for it. He is just out and already regrets it because he is about $75k in debt and realizes that he got very little for it.

I didn't even realize what that really meant for him when I was talking to him.

[Gothmog]

7. Great cartoon

[madville]

9. They could confiscate Social Security payments

It would be a win-win for the Feds, collect a lifetime of interest on the student loans and then confiscate the person's social security checks later to cover the remainder of the debt.

They could make money for decades on the interest and then not have to payout social security either.