was your student loan debt worth it?

[child of wonder]

My wife and I ended up needing to take out the max loan amounts we could to supplement our income while I went to school. Total loans were $13,000 for my AAS Degree in Network/System Administration.

We've been very fortunate that the investment has panned out for us. 4.5 years later my career has been very successful and we're looking into putting my wife through school this fall.

 

[dpodblood]

I owe < 15K which comes out as small monthly payments, and my education landed me a good paying job so yeah it was worth it. Working while in school wasn't an option since I was in an intensive 2 year course and would often have 6 hours of homework per night. I did take a year off to save money before hand though, so that helped out a lot.

 

[dullard]

I did the required work in highschool/college to get scholarships. Graduated after nine years of college with a PhD and $8k of student loans. I make about four times the salary that I'd have expected without that PhD. Of course, that nine years of lost salary took some time to catch back up. But, after working for 6 years, I have now surpassed the net worth that I would have had without a degree.

From now on, I can just sit back and rake in the 4x salary. So, yes it was worth it.

If I had it to do over again I would have taken out far more student loans. I say this since my student loans were ~3&#37; interest and my mortgage was almost double that. Although getting student loans that aren't really needed would not fully be obiding by the laws / rules of student loans. But it isn't like anyone enforces them.

 

[Kirby]

intentionally went to a school where i would not have to go into debt

same here. no regrets.

 

[polarmystery]

I can answer this easily - HELL NO!

this

 

[oddyager]

50K in debt after all said and done (did both grad and undergrad at a Big Ten school). 10 years later I have a well-paying job that I love so yes, it was worth every penny.

 

[Zeeky Boogy Doog]

I was fortunate enough to have my parents offer to pay the full amount it cost to go to state school, with me paying anything over that, so I went to state and came out with no debt, very happy to be in my position. That said, going back for grad school soon and I'll be paying every penny of that, so I'll find out in 3 years or so.

 

[capntrader]

dude, seriously?

i meant due to my degree. i ended up going into an entirely different field.

 

[dud]

My original debt was $5,000 but I paid that off years ago.

Thank God!

 

[Pandamonium]

I hope it'll be worth it financially, but I'm pretty sure it'll be worth it emotionally. If you want to go into medicine, you take any spot you get and take out the loans to finance your education. Balls out all the way.

I'm fortunate in that I don't have any undergrad debt (my parents were generous), but I'm on my own for grad school. That said, I'm in for 100k currently with 3 years to go and will probably owe about 375-400k at the time of graduation. Most of it is at 8.5% and some of it is at 6.8%.

 

[GCS]

no

 

[Gibson486]

I hope it'll be worth it financially, but I'm pretty sure it'll be worth it emotionally. If you want to go into medicine, you take any spot you get and take out the loans to finance your education. Balls out all the way.

I'm fortunate in that I don't have any undergrad debt (my parents were generous), but I'm on my own for grad school. That said, I'm in for 100k currently with 3 years to go and will probably owe about 375-400k at the time of graduation. Most of it is at 8.5% and some of it is at 6.8%.

I thought I had it bad.

 

[matas]

My projected college debt is gonna be around 35k. I am thinking of doing some sort of engineering, maybe chemical or biomedical. Do you think it will be worth it?

 

[jinduy]

i paid off the 7k in short time so it was worth it

 

[rcpratt]

My projected college debt is gonna be around 35k. I am thinking of doing some sort of engineering, maybe chemical or biomedical. Do you think it will be worth it?

Yeah, easy.

 

[HardcoreRobot]

Unless your degree was in underwater basket weaving, or you didn't graduate it would almost certainly be worth it for just about everyone.

Please note that may not be the case for someone that was good with the trades.

initially i was going to comment something similar, but you are forgetting the people that went to $$$$ school to get a very similar education as a $$ school

 

[Blayze]

No

 

[vi edit]

I only had about 14k out of my undergrad degree and easily had that paid off 3 years out of school. Definitely worth it.

My wife on the other hand had over 90k for her Pharmacy degree. That's locked in at 2.25&#37; for 30 years which is still almost $400. It's bascially a small mortgage. We're hoping that with her occupation she'll qualify for the loan forgiveness in a few more years since she works for a non-profit health care employer. In that case it was way worth the cost. She makes a very comfortable income even with the loans factored in.

 

[QuantumPion]

I started with about 30k in loans but I'm in a professional field. My payments are around $300/month which basically worked out to be the difference between buying a new civic instead of a BMW right out of school.

 

[TruePaige]

40k? That's nothing for a decent degree.

It's just a fancy car.

Buy a Ford Focus, move on.

 

[RiDE]

My friend and his wife will probably owe $250k when theyre done... lol

 

[PricklyPete]

While $40K is a lot...it pales in comparison to the job opportunities college provided me over the years. I left school with much less (I think it was under 5K when all said and done) due to scholarships and working during college...but I would happily have paid 40K.

The funny thing is college graduates don't think twice about going out and buying a 40K BMW after getting their first promotion...

 

[AreaCode707]

I started in community college with negligible costs and transferred to a university when I was 18, did two years at breakneck speed to complete my degree as cheaply as possible, worked part time, and graduated with $5500 in debt. Definitely worth it, since my degree opened the door to jobs I could not otherwise have gotten.

School doesn't have to be pricey to be good. You get out of your education the effort that you put into it.

 

[PricklyPete]

I hope it'll be worth it financially, but I'm pretty sure it'll be worth it emotionally. If you want to go into medicine, you take any spot you get and take out the loans to finance your education. Balls out all the way.

I'm fortunate in that I don't have any undergrad debt (my parents were generous), but I'm on my own for grad school. That said, I'm in for 100k currently with 3 years to go and will probably owe about 375-400k at the time of graduation. Most of it is at 8.5% and some of it is at 6.8%.

fvck man...that's ridiculous. I'm assuming you'll be a surgeon when it is all said and done...but still...that's a huge burden to bare.

 

[TheVrolok]

Only time will tell.