Another cautionary debt story

SlitheyTove
Fri, 24 Oct 2008 12:12:03 +0000

futurenystudent, I’m not seeing your point about grad school and employment prospects in the context of this thread. We’ve got a young man who racked up an enormous amount of undergrad debt so that he could attend a prestigious private school. I’d guess he did that because he felt it would be better for his employment prospects. He’s now been out of school for a few years. He’s working as a controller, making a respectable living but not one that would be out of line for Cal State University grads in business or accounting. And he’s now contemplating bankruptcy, which probably will not discharge his student loans.

This fellow has no grad school prospects–he won’t be able to afford it. His employment prospects, even coming from USC, don’t appear to be enhanced relative to a lower-cost public university.

There might be a few students out there who are incredibly talented and hardworking and who will make the big gamble–take out the massive loans in hopes of a massive payout from getting a plum job–pay off. But for the vast majority of people, it’s a bad bet. Especially in this economy.