<p>You need to have a chat with your parents about the money. If you take a Gap Year now, can they begin to pay down the $60k that they owe, or not? Getting a paid internship in your current (or a related) field to truly try it on for size for a year might help everyone understand that it will be better to cut your losses. </p>
<p>If they tell you that they can’t afford to pay towards what they now owe if you are in a Gap Year, or if they just plain don’t want to hear about that option, go to the library and pick up some model loan agreements, and draw one up with your parents. Agree to pay off their $60k. No bank or credit union will loan you this money. It will have to be a private agreement between you and them.</p>
<p>I should have dropped out or taken a Gap Year after my third year of college. I had not-so-good grades, was in a degree program that wasn’t a good match, well basically everything that you have written here. I stayed because the Gap Year I needed would have messed up my financial aid package. I powered through. My debt-load was all mine so at least I didn’t have to feel bad about what my parents owed. My degree program was all but useless other than being able to say I had a bachelor’s degree from College X. Two years out of college after a string of minimum wage jobs, I changed fields entirely, went back to my cheap state U, took a year and a half of courses in the new field, and headed off to grad school in that field. So I do know that changing fields can be done. I just should have done it a lot sooner when the financial consequences would have not been as serious.</p>
<p>Wishing you and your parents all the best.</p>