How bad are student loans? Is work study hard?

Paying for College
1

<p>My dad does not like either work study and student loans. While I know not going for either and needing significant aid is not possible at most colleges (especially the ones I am considering), I would like to minimize loans. WS doesn’t really bother me. </p>

<p>My 2 questions are as follows: </p>

<ol>
<li>Are student loans detrimental to students if they plan on going to grad/law school? </li>
<li>How many people do you know are in “debt up to their eyeballs” (from the commercial LOL) due to student loans?</li>
<li>Does work-study make the “study” part harder as you will have less time?</li>
</ol>

<p>Thanks!</p>

2

<p>My kids both worked about 10 hours a week while in college. Both reported it actually HELPED them budget their time better. Plus…they would not have had a nickel of discretionary spending money if they had not worked. Both got terrific grades. DD had work study…DS worked off campus.</p>

<p>Re: loans…Both of my kids took the Stafford loans. This left each with about $20K worth of debt from undergraduate school. It is not unmanagable debt, in our opinions. BUT we would not have allowed them to take loans above the Staffords.</p>

<p>If you have significant financial need, you may find that your financial aid package includes the Stafford loans and Work Study. It’s your choice to take these aid types…but if you don’t, you will have to make up the money in those awards somehow. It’s unlikely the school is going to eliminate the Stafford loans or WS for you and give you other aid types if that is typically how the school packages need based financial aid.</p>

<p>Now…having said all that…at many schools…if you receive outside scholarships, they will first reduce your loan awards…and then work study.</p>

<p>In my humble opinion…there is nothing wrong with the Stafford loans OR Work Study as part of your financial aid package. But that’s just my opinion.</p>

<p>The big question…if you don’t take WS or Stafford loans…how WILL you make up that amount for your college costs. Max Stafford for the freshman year is $5500 and WS is usually a couple thousand dollars.</p>

3

<p>Agree with Thumper. UMich states evidence shows work study students have higher GPAs. [University</a> of Michigan Office of Financial Aid: Work-Study & Temporary Employment](<a href=“http://www.finaid.umich.edu/Types_of_Financial_Aid/studentwork.asp]University”>http://www.finaid.umich.edu/Types_of_Financial_Aid/studentwork.asp)</p>

4

<p>Work-study does not negatively affect students’ grades. You don’t have to work very many hours per week… Some kids only work like 8-10 hours per week.</p>

<p>Partying and other social distractions negatively affect students’ grades.</p>

<p>If you’re going to go to law school, then minimize any student loans. </p>

<p>My kids have worked part-time while in college. They have straight A’s and are in difficult majors - math and chemical engineering.</p>

5

<p>Yes, that’s what I’ve read, that work-study students generally do better academically than those not working.</p>

<p>Loans are definitely to be avoided if possible, or at least minimized if unavoidable - particularly if law school is in your future, which usually involves a great deal of borrowing to pay for. You don’t want loans on top of loans.</p>

6

<p>Work study jobs are great for college students as many of them have some “down time” which the student can use to study while working. And WS employers are usually quite flexible and understanding about scheduling around exams, new classes, etc. The additional benefit, if you’re working in an academic department office or lab, is that you develop relationships with faculty/staff that can be beneficial later.</p>

7

<p>My dad does not like either work study and student loans.</p>

<p>Then your dad is free to give you the money instead. :)</p>

8

<ol>
<li>Not necessarily; it depends on how much you borrow. If you want to go to law school your debt from law school will probably range from $150-200K. Add $80K debt from undergrad on top of that and we’re talking a pretty hefty debt-load. But if you only borrowed $20K in undergrad, that’s not that much. Same story with medical school, although with medical school the returns are more guaranteed (even the lowest-paid medical specialities earn six figures). Attorney salaries vary widely depending on the kind of job you get and where you went to law schools. Graduates from T20 schools who work on Wall Street can bust six figures and easily repay loans; graduates from mid-range law schools who work for non-profits or local government may have similar six-figure debt but may only make around $50-70K per year.</li>
</ol>

<p>With graduate school, if you get a master’s you pay but if you get a doctoral degree usually it’s funded. In my case, I have $21K total debt (grad + undergrad) and I don’t anticipate having to borrow any more (I’m in my second year of a doctoral program).</p>

<ol>
<li>I know a lot. For context, I’m 23 and I’m in a PhD program. As some friends and colleagues near the completion of their program I hear a lot of worry about how they’re going to repay their debts. Like I said, I’m $21K in debt and when I tell people that, they either laugh at me or pat me on the back and tell me not to worry, that’s nothing. Academic jobs also don’t pay terribly well (In my field you can expect between $60K and $80K depending on the area of the country) given the time commitment it takes to earn the credential you need to do it, so anyone with more than that borrowed in undergrad is going to be in a rough position.</li>
</ol>

<p>Even worse is the stories from my friends in the master’s program, which is widely considered the “cash cow” for my school. The tuition and fees here at my elite private university for grad students is about $40,000 per year and unless they have jobs most MPH students have to borrow more than that to cover their living expenses and my university is one of the most expensive cities in the country. Over two years that cost is close to $100,000 total, and that’s NOT including whatever they borrowed in undergrad to finish. Worse, jobs in public health aren’t exactly the best paying. My friends can probably hope to make between $45K and $60K in their first jobs, which is far less than their loans and probably unaffordable.</p>

<p>Not a good idea. Consider the costs AND the likely salary you’ll make before borrowing any amount of money for education. I’d say that overall it’s probably not a good idea to borrow over the Stafford loan limits for dependent undergraduate students per year, which is currently $27,000.</p>

<ol>
<li>Not necessarily. Most work-study jobs are in offices and similar. Most of the work-study students I knew worked between 10 and 15 hours a week (which isn’t really that much time at all) and worked places like admissions (filing papers, data entry, etc.), the library (circulation desk, filing papers, shelving books, etc.), different academic offices (filing papers, data entry, answering the phone, etc.), things like that.</li>
</ol>