Writing assignment -Student loans

All of you share one thing in common – these college level courses. Many of you will take out student loans to help pay for it. I encourage you to think very, very critically about this. I’m not saying don’t do it – but do think long and hard about it. Do the math. Spend at least a few days considering alternatives to student loans. What might happen if you spent ONE year working before college, how might that effect your future loan burden? Do the math and spend some serious time on it. This week, check out the research by the NY Federal Reserve bank here. Http://www.newyorkfed.org/studentloandebt/index.html That’s a lot of debt, and growing. Having $20-$30,000 can seriously limit your ability to buy a car, a house, etc. after graduation. Think about what we have learned about interest rates, opportunity costs, consumer spending, etc.

Also, give serious thought to your college major, and what it might do for your career. I know, it is unfortunate that we ask people to make these decisions when they are 17-18. A career seems like forever away to you, 4 years is an eternity, and planning 5-10 years out probably isn’t your strong suit yet. Business Insider has a great piece on student debt and repayment by major, here: http://www.businessinsider.com/student-loan-by-major-2014-11 At this point a lot of you are thinking things like “Well you know money isn’t everything…” or “I just want to do what I love…” And that’s fine – as long as you have a way to pay your own bills and aren’t relying on anyone else to do it for you. It’s the time in your life when you seriously need to consider how you’re going to make ends meet long term. And simple math tells us that taking out $75,000 in school debt for a job that pays $25,000 a year is a BAD IDEA.

Further Directions

There’s excellent data on Kentucky here: http://ticas.org/posd/map-state-data-2015#overlay=posd/state_data/2015/ky and of course you should be familiar with the US Dept. of Education’s college scorecard site. Here is WKU’s entry. You can look up others. https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/school/?157951-Western-Kentucky-University Let me me painfully clear: this might be the most important reading you do all semester. For your writing assignment this week, discuss student loans, the student loan explosion in the US, and it’s effects on the economy. Feel free to discuss your own plans, or to “think on paper” about your choice of college, major, and financing plans.

Write about several alternatives. What are your plans for repaying your student loans? Do you think student loans are always, sometimes, or never a good idea? These are some possible ideas and topics you could write on related to student loans. Write more than a page.