<p>Flowerhead, I totally get where you are coming from. </p>
<p>It is becoming a vicious circle; D has friends who had SA positions this summer, got extended offers for permanent employment and turned it down. She has friends on the ohter end of the spectrum that got public service scholarships from NYU and are hedging at the prospect of working non profit (which means the money will have to be repaid). She has friends working IB/consulting who are not crazy about their jobs, but have undergrad debt and don’t want to walk away from the money.</p>
<p>It seems like this whole thing is spinning out of control. You also have 17 years olds thinking that their lives are ruined and they will be unemployed if they do not attend and Ivy or Top university/LAC.</p>
<p>Full freight payering parents are now paying/borrowing $200,000 for 4 years of undergrad at top schools.</p>
<p>To me I think the people in the most hellish sitations are people who have massive undergrad debt and then compounded it with massive grad/professional school debt.</p>