Student Loan Calculator – NYTimes.com.
Don’t get me wrong. I am fully behind a college education and when putting four children through private college within ten years I was looking for all the help I could get, especially the scholarship and grant kind and my children contributed with campus jobs and some loans. Between them and me we paid off those loans as soon as possible. You see, those loans became a first order budget item before things they wanted or would like to do.
Now the left is on the free college bandwagon and bemoaning the crushing burden of student loans. Look a little closer and you will see that burden is often self-inflicted by not completing college, taking more than four years to graduate or simply attending a school one cannot reasonably afford or by adding graduate school.
Look at this example from the New York Times calculator. Does that look like a crushing debt that a college graduate could not handle with prudent spending and budgeting? And then look at the starting salary suggested as adequate to handle such debt. In case you didn’t notice, that’s less than many on the left want for the new minimum wage which amounts to $31,200 per year.
Agree with me, the left, the far right or not, it always pays to think beyond the headlines and rhetoric.
PS I must say, however, in today’s environment it seems we could do a lot better on the interest rate being charged I can get a 30-year mortgage for nearly a percentage less. Why charge students more than the rate at which the government can borrow? Oh my, what I just said means I agree with Old Liz Warren. 😳
QUINNSCOMMENTARY 
I never took any colleges loans, I paid as I went or got tuition reimbursement, but I was thinking what if on your first student loan application they had a form like they give you for mortgages. On your application your freshmen year, input how many years you are going to school (4 yrs, 5 yrs, grad school), the amount of yearly tuition, books, board and print out a total cost sheet. The total cost sheet that shows the principle, interest, total loan amounts and pay off date and the labor department average pay for the selected degree. I know a college bound student should be able to do this but when you look at one $10k loan one year and then another $15k loan the next year, it is not the same as $150K with a total pay back of $225k in ten years. At least with mortgages you can get 30 year pay backs. Society expects students to go to college no matter what the cost, but when you see an amortization table might change your mind.
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“I can get a 30-year mortgage for nearly a percentage less. Why charge students more than the rate at which the government can borrow? Oh my, what I just said means I agree with Old Liz Warren. 😳”
It sounds like you are starting to think like Old Liz too.
You can get a better rate than 4.66% on a mortgage because the mortgage is secured debt and you better have a perfect credit score too. Student debt is unsecured in most cases. The government can borrow cheaply because it is backed by the full faith and printing press of the Federal Reserve.
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