Your Total School Loans aka Pain Agony Defeat

[quote name='NismoZZzz']I was just looking through my school loans and noticed the amount I owed. I want to ram my head against a wall. I owe $45000 and I have a couple of semesters left to go.[/QUOTE]

I'll trade you my $125,000+ for your $45,000. *crosses fingers*
 
[quote name='kube00']I went to a state University (WSU), saving tons of money in high school from working at least part time, my parents and Grandma had some mutual funds for me, as well as some bonds. I spent around $73 for 6 years, the bonds and mutal funds paid for about 1/3. I figured out that if I had spent what hte University predicts you will spend it would have been something like $110k.

The rest I got from working my ass off. I lived on campus 4 out of the 6 years, 1 year was spent in a cheap university run apartment only an 8 month contract, not a 12 like most apartments with free cable and internet. I worked two jobs at a time, one as pc tech assistant, the other as a houseboy(work in a sorority free food and hot girls) or writer for the paper. The fraternity I spent 4 years in also gave rent discounts $50 a month for a 3.5 or better. I kept my grades up and in my last year I severed as the fraternity's advisor and I got to live 1/2 rent. I also had a full load of classes and I was super active in the fraternity.

I also tried to make at least $5k a summer, one summer I made $8k. I did fraternity summer recruitment which equaled free rent as well as worked a few other jobs in the summer. I drove a $5k 1999 cavalier through most of college. I just kept my spending down and didn't buy hardly anything except for the ps3 and an engagement ring.

So in the end college was a lot of fun, and b/c I'm so cheap I never spent a lot at the bars or parties or ate out a bunch. I never went on ski trips or trips to cabo. In the end I owe my dad $1000 and thats it.[/quote]:applause:

I really do applaud the types of people like you. Not really dissing anybody in this thread, but there's just something about people with the will to work, especially as hard as you did, that fascinates me.
 
[quote name='kube00']I went to a state University (WSU), saving tons of money in high school from working at least part time, my parents and Grandma had some mutual funds for me, as well as some bonds. I spent around $73 for 6 years, the bonds and mutal funds paid for about 1/3. I figured out that if I had spent what hte University predicts you will spend it would have been something like $110k.

The rest I got from working my ass off. I lived on campus 4 out of the 6 years, 1 year was spent in a cheap university run apartment only an 8 month contract, not a 12 like most apartments with free cable and internet. I worked two jobs at a time, one as pc tech assistant, the other as a houseboy(work in a sorority free food and hot girls) or writer for the paper. The fraternity I spent 4 years in also gave rent discounts $50 a month for a 3.5 or better. I kept my grades up and in my last year I severed as the fraternity's advisor and I got to live 1/2 rent. I also had a full load of classes and I was super active in the fraternity.

I also tried to make at least $5k a summer, one summer I made $8k. I did fraternity summer recruitment which equaled free rent as well as worked a few other jobs in the summer. I drove a $5k 1999 cavalier through most of college. I just kept my spending down and didn't buy hardly anything except for the ps3 and an engagement ring.

So in the end college was a lot of fun, and b/c I'm so cheap I never spent a lot at the bars or parties or ate out a bunch. I never went on ski trips or trips to cabo. In the end I owe my dad $1000 and thats it.[/quote]

Yeah, if you don't spend money on stupid shit, especially drugs/cigarettes/alcohol/etc., then you'll be making a lot of money. I owe plenty of money, but including this tough economy, I've been hardly spending. I think the most I've bought this semester was a couple games recently ($10 apiece), a zippo lighter (I don't smoke, but I've always wanted one and it was sort of a birthday present to myself), and lava lamp at walmart (another birthday gift of something I've always wanted (plus it was only $10)).
 
$0, graduating this June. I was extremely fortunate to have my parents fund my education above what scholarships didn't cover. My cousin, who is graduating at the same time as me, wasn't as lucky (and went to a private college instead of a public university) and she'll have $70k in loans to pay off. My whole 4 years of college didn't even cost that much, and she got several thousands in scholarships. And she's going right to grad school too to be a physician's assistant, so I'm sure she'll be well over $100k when it's all said and done. I'm worried for her.
 
EDIT: I went home and looked at my actual costs, it was 77k for 6 years, and the estimated cost was around 100k. I saved about 22% total or around 3k a year on average. I paid for about 60% of my own school costs from working, the rest was covered in the few scholarships and the mutual funds.

And to note I have two good friends who owe a lot, one who went to WSU with me after 7 years of school for a BA owes 70k and another who went to University of Pitt and tried his hand at law school owes about $130k.

But you gotta do what you gotta do to get through school.


Looking back if I had been an AG major I could have gotten most of my schooling paid for. Instead its History and English: Creative Writing and I work in I.T.
 
what are all of you going to school to become? I'm graduating in May then i have 3 years in PT school to get my doctorate to become a physical therapist.
 
I have yet to take out any loans but have 1.5 to 2 years left so I will probably end up with 10-15k in loans depending upon how long I take to finish it all (Read: How long I take to finish this shit). I went to community college for the first two years, and now moved over to ODU. It's not bad compared to many schools, but it's still ridiculously expensive.

It makes me wonder how much less it would cost if schools such as ODU didn't have shitty sports programs as the ones that exist. I mean, 60% of the people that play sports get a free ride, which the rest of the students end up paying for in one way or another, not to mention the cost of the programs themselves. If you want to play B-Ball for your career, you should have to pay for it, IMO..
 
Only had to take out 8k or so for undergrad. Law school, however, has already forced me to take out about 30k, this being my first year. I'm at the point where I'm regretting I ever decided to go to law school, but in for a penny...

Could be significantly worse, all in all. At least I picked a cheap law school.
 
[quote name='evanft']No one else got an academic free ride?[/QUOTE]

I could have... if I went to University of Rhode Island. Sadly it sucks for what I was going to major in and my parents were willing to pay the difference for other schools.
 
pell grant for me too...but i did have to take out staffords...so luckily at my Com College....i got a free ride. At William Patterson ill end up owing about 6K when i get out. So i too am fortunate enough also to owe little when i come outl
 
I was fortunate that my undergrad was tuition free as my mom worked for the university. However med school put me about $120,000 in the hole, though this past year I finally cracked under the $100,000 mark which is huge psychologically. I am fortunate that when I consolidated my loans, I got a nice 3% interest rate, so my monthly payment is fairly reasonable, though spread out for 30 years.
 
I wonder how long it takes the average medical doctor to pay off any loans from med school. Maybe that's why this new doctor i'm seeing charges out the ass.
 
[quote name='evanft']No one else got an academic free ride?[/QUOTE]


I was (still am) really lazy in High School. Did enough to get by, and that was it. It wasn't that I partied a lot either, I had no friends, I just hung out in my room and listened to music instead of studying or doing homework.
Until my senior year when I started to bring my grades up. But by then it wasn't enough to get any scholarships.
Now I'm married to someone even lazier than I am and all we do is eat out for almost every meal, so we never have any money to pay any more on the student loans that the monthly interest.
 
0. I was fortunate enough to receive scholarships to cover everything. It's amazing how expensive it is to get an education currently. I can see how it would discourage some, who would otherwise attend, from going to college.

Also, my company is going to pay for my master's, so I'm double fortunate there.
 
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I've thoughg about applying for some scholarships, but i wouldn't really know where to start. There are a few listed here by the school's financial aid office, but they only choose one person per scholarship. I don't like those odds.
 
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[quote name='Synergy']Heh, good one. I'm as cheap as they come with video games and certain electronics. Some things I'm willing to pay a bit more for.[/QUOTE]

Same here. That's the one logical flaw that people have here. Just because someone is on a video game deals site doesn't mean they're a cheap ass in every facet.

I'm cheap with games as I don't have much time for them and a waning interest in them as I get older, but I'm not cheap with much of anything else.
 
I had a half-off ride to my university (private, large, $35K+), and then I was an RA for 4 of the 5 years I was there, so I lived for free. I got out fairly unscathed compared to most people I know.
 
[quote name='JolietJake']I've thoughg about applying for some scholarships, but i wouldn't really know where to start. There are a few listed here by the school's financial aid office, but they only choose one person per scholarship. I don't like those odds.[/quote]

That's the same for me. Also the scholarships require two letters of recommendation which would be hard for me since I just transfer here and still don't know any of the professors well. I'm only take loans as a last options, and I'm not even using half the money, so next semester I will cut it in half.

For years after high school, I went on and off, trying to find a job but without any kind of degree or "training" you'll get nowhere unless you have a network of people you can exploit who can help you out.
 
At my business school, for non-need-based scholarships, all you have to do is fill out an online form in the winter/spring (can't remember which) and it automatically makes you eligible for tons of scholarships. I got 2 scholarships totalling $4000 for my final year in college this way. The form took like 5 minutes to fill out too.
 
I owe both my arms and probably my first born.

about 20K for undergrad and
65K for grad school it is all soo depressing :( plus I am still stuck in the same job because of this economy
 
Some sound advice a financial adviser gave me was to do your best to keep your loans under the typical starting salary for your field. It's not a 100% rule to follow, but generally if your total loan amount is equal to or less than your annual salary paying it off won't be too much of a burden assuming you're fiscally responsible and not saddled with tons of other debt.

Thankfully I was able to do that, as noted I have around $50K in student loans and the Job I landed for when I graduated this summer starts at $60K and I'll probably make more next year with some consulting etc. on top of that.
 
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