Digging Out of Student Debt
When Angela Moore looks into her future, she sees checks for $500, $147, $280 and $250 piling up like leaves in a forest. Those are the amounts she could be paying every single month on her four student loans, which total $92,000, for the next several decades. If she postpones payments, the amounts she owes will go up. If she skips them, she could ruin her credit and end up in court.Moore, 26, graduated with a bachelor's degree from the University of Hartford in 2009 with $25,000 in federal student loans and $67,000 in private loans. She devotes about half of her paycheck to those bills and resorts to credit cards to cover other expenses. Says Moore, the first in her family to graduate from college, "It's heartbreaking to have a college degree and not be able to pay for normal things because I have to pay student loans."
Moore works at an orthopedic surgeon's office, the same job she had in college. She would like to move on someday but can't afford to make less than her current wage of about $18 an hour. Nor does she see an obvious way out of her predicament. "If you're in that much debt and have a house or car, you at least have something you can give back. I have a piece of paper. I have nothing to give back."
Here is the link to the full article: http://finance.yahoo.com/college-education/article/110724/digging-out-of-student-debt
a) paid less for tuition at the time
b) did not stay in dorms
c) received scholarships and/or some form of financial aid
d) worked and paid off some fees while in college, or
e) received a college fund from her parents.
Now, I'm sure the University of Hartford is a fine school. However, if Ms. Moore had gone to a state school, she could have saved thousands of dollars and years of agony. So, let's say Ms. Moore was a resident of Connecticut when she applied for college. Rather than spending $119,408 for four years at the University of Hartford, here's what she could have paid (and saved) had she attended Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven instead:
Southern Connecticut State University
In-State Tuition and Fees: $8,050.00
Four year total: $32,220.00
Total Savings*: $87,188.00
*savings compared between University of Hartford vs. Southern Connecticut State University
according to collegeboard.com
according to collegeboard.com
Here's what she could have saved going to the University of Connecticut:
University of Connecticut
In-State Tuition and Fees: $10,416.00
Four year total: $41,664.00
Total Savings*: $77,744.00
*savings compared between University of Hartford vs. University of Connecticut
according to collegeboard.com
according to collegeboard.com
University of Connecticut
Not to rub it in for poor Ms. Moore, but according to the 2010 University and College rankings for Connecticut, the University of Connecticut is the SECOND BEST college in the state (following Yale University!). University of Hartford ranks at #8, falling behind another state school, Central Connecticut State University.
This is one example of why it pays to attend a state school rather than a private, for-profit school. I will most definitely continue this discussion later. Have a great weekend everyone!
