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Do Now
In this economy is it wise to choose a college course that you are excited about or should you be hard-headed and choose a program that offers a more secure future? How will you choose?
Intro
Brandon Smith, 24, is a journalism student who started school at a community college in Ohio, transferred to a four-year state university, and then moved to Columbia College in Chicago. He attended school for a total of six years and now owes around $98,000 in debt on his student loan. He is now working all hours to pay it off.
Is it smart or unavoidable to borrow a lot of money to go to college? According to student financial aid expert, Mark Kantrowitz, “It's smart if it's enabling you to invest in your future,"….. "But if you borrow more than your expected starting salary after you graduate, you're going to struggle to pay your loans."
Does that mean it makes sense to borrow money if you choose a degree in a subject area like science, technology or engineering -- which offer clear pathways to a career and employment, rather than choosing a less secure route? Degrees in subjects such as art, music, literature, religious or even media studies may be more precarious choices if employment is the primary motivation. Should you choose a “sensible” college course that will enable you to pay back loans and enable you to calculate how long it will take to be free of debt?
Choices about loans are the kind of decisions that will be with students for years to come and impact their future, and given that student loan debt is now higher than all credit card debt in this country, can students be prepared for what lies ahead? For example, many schools are offering classes in financial management as a way to protect students from the financial perils suffered by their parents.
Resource
KQED News segment College Students Navigate Financial Life.
For many high school and college seniors, graduation is a time of new beginnings and harsh realities. Their thoughts are turning to money — for tuition, rent and credit card bills. Three Illinois students have already made decisions about debt and finances that will be with them for years to come.
This segment is part of a series on young people and financial literacy.
To respond to the Do Now, you can comment below or tweet your response. Be sure to begin your tweet with @KQEDedspace and end it with #KQEDDoNow
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More Resources for Follow-up Lessons
NPR segment College Student Debt Grows. Is It Worth It?
The amount of money Americans owe on student loans recently exceeded the nation's credit card debt. That may lead many to ask: Is it smart to borrow a lot of money to go to college?
Photo from Thinkstock
November 16, 2011
Protesters Plan a National ‘Student-Debt Refusal’ Campaign
By Eric Hoover
Occupy Wall Street protesters are poised to announce a national “student-debt refusal” campaign that would begin next week, says a prominent scholar within the movement.
On Wednesday night, Andrew Ross, a professor of social and cultural analysis at New York University, said members of an Occupy Wall Street working group were finalizing drafts of three “pledges” related to student debt, including a debtors’ pledge, whose signers would refuse to make payments on their loans after one million signatures have been collected.
The other pledges are one for faculty members who support those who refuse to pay, and another for nondebtors, including parents and sympathizers, who also want to show their support.
The pledges, Mr. Ross said, are to be based on four beliefs: that student loans should be interest-free; that tuition at all public institutions should be federally funded; that private and for-profit colleges should open their financial records to the public; and that students’ “debt burden” should be written off.
Mr. Ross, an expert in academic-labor issues, is a member of Occupy Wall Street’s Education and Empowerment working group. On Wednesday, he described how his personal interest in student-debt issues had developed.
“Like many faculty, I see a lot of suffering and humiliation among students in taking on this debt,” Mr. Ross said. “There was the recognition that my own salary is debt-financed. … There’s an element of complicity. It’s an incredible burden for faculty to bear.”
The campaign is scheduled to begin with an event at Zuccotti Park, in New York, on Monday afternoon, followed by a protest at the City University of New York’s Baruch College.
-http://chronicle.com/article/Protesters-Plan-a-National/129810/