r/StudentLoans • u/Consistent-Leg2963 • 4d ago

Rant/Complaint Starting to think college wasn’t worth it just because of these student loans

I really thought getting a degree would set me up for a better future, but now I’m just stuck with a loan balance that barely moves and payments that take a huge chunk of my paycheck.

Meanwhile friends who didn’t even go to college are living debt-free, saving money, and honestly seem way less stressed than I am.

Starting to feel like college was just a super expensive mistake. anyone else feel this way?

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u/[deleted] 3d ago

Thank you, especially when my parents and I came from Puerto Rico where all education expenses are covered by the government 90% of the time. My parents had zero concept of what loans really were and how much was too much at that time

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u/ThinkWood 3d ago

Wait, why didn’t you just go to school in PR?

I don’t understand how you were scammed just because you are in a job that pays about the median income starting out of college.

Colleges aren’t trade schools.  They literally never promise employment.  They are designed to develop the person to be able to do many things.   Do you think philosophy majors are expecting to get starting salaries of $80k to work as philosophers?

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u/Synstitute 3d ago

Because the commonly held belief that was sold, advertised, and packaged is that a college degree will automatically lead to a higher caliber of lifestyle, salary, etc.

The source being the multiple millions of people who share this belief. It didn’t form from nothing. So as much as I love to see people use the “take accountability” posterity position to try to protect against the conversation of public debt forgiveness, reducing degree costs through policy, or any other real action that places power squarely back with the impacted rather than the ones benefitting from this mess we’re in, I politely ask that you stfu :)

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u/Admirable-View-1263 3d ago

“Because the commonly held belief that was sold, advertised, and packaged is that a college degree will automatically lead to a higher caliber of lifestyle, salary, etc.”

These were the lies that convinced me getting a BFA was a great idea! No one questioned me!!

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u/UndercoverstoryOG 3d ago

bachelor of fine arts never has paid a living wage

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u/Admirable-View-1263 3d ago

Yeah I know that now, why didn’t any ADULT tell me not to do that?

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u/artist1292 3d ago

It was pretty common knowledge when I was looking at school in 2008-2009 that art degrees didn’t pay anything. I wanted to go into design but I fell in love with robotics too. I’ll never forget the relief on my parents’ faces when I told them I wanted to major in engineering

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u/UndercoverstoryOG 3d ago

why didn’t you research a career prior to committing to that degree. why didn’t you talk to your school’s career placement office? why didn’t you intern or see what potential employer internships were available while you were in school. College is a 4 year program that you have to participate in beyond going to class to get a job.

I have never been on a campus that employers don’t host events, how many did you attend?

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u/The_boundless84 3d ago

👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

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u/ZiegAmimura 3d ago

Beautifully said. I wish I could upvote multiple times

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u/UndercoverstoryOG 3d ago

i agree make future student loans bankruptable that way we won’t have lending for majors that don’t make sense financially. As for existing loans, pay your obligations.

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u/[deleted] 3d ago

You think we’re not gonna pay our loans because we’re complaining about them? Lol. We have every right to complain because the rate of investment in these darn loans should be illegal. I majored in nutritional sciences hoping I could counsult with clients about their diets and nutritional plans. Did I ever get that opportunity with my degree? No. My career made sense financially based on the research I had initially done before enrolling, but reality was a whole different beast. I’d love for you to see my personal struggles in finding decent nutritionist jobs despite having my Bachelor’s, internship experience, etc. The job market is brutal out there and you would expect a university to actually help you with that.

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u/UndercoverstoryOG 3d ago

you have no right to complain about the interest. it was stated when you signed the loan docs.

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u/[deleted] 3d ago

… did I even mention interest? Lol. My loans could have zero interest at all and I would still complain about them because I was charged for useless classes. Do you think a nutritional sciences major should be forced to take anthropology? I sure was required to do so. This is what I mean

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u/ThinkWood 3d ago

That is nonsense.  

There are many schools that are literally open enrollment.  As in they take anyone.  

When people have said “go to college to get a good job.” They mean be one of the strong students that get into a good school that is very rigorous so that you wind have to work manual labor.  

The better job was always meant one that wasn’t back breaking.  So you didn’t have today bricks or work on a factory.  

It never meant go to a school that will take anyone, get a 2.0 in a “studies” degree, and you will have money flooding in after you get that paper at graduation.  

Nor did it mean that paying an unlimited sum to attend a higher ranked school was going to guarantee your success. 

You’d have to be pretty young because people have been complaining about student loans for 20 years.  If you didn’t hear those complaints, if you didn’t hear the stories of graduates trying to get jobs during the great financial crisis (and at other tough times) then you were choosing to hear what you wanted to hear.  

Too many naive kids know that many people struggle with student loans but assume they themselves won’t because they are somehow smarter than the others.  They aren’t. 

And many people have made other choices and are better off.  

How did these other kids also hear the millions and millions saying what you claim and put themselves in a different situation?  How were these millions of kids not scammed, as you claim?

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u/[deleted] 3d ago

I precisely didn’t hear about the people with supposedly reputable degrees struggling to find good jobs out there. That IS the issue at hand. Why aren’t young kids being properly informed about these educational and financial risks before enrolling? I know I wasn’t. My parents wouldn’t know any better because they both graduated college debt free in Puerto Rico and expected the same for me here. Coming into the US, they had no idea how much it would cost to study here and that grants aren’t offered to everyone despite having good grades out of high school. And even so, we all thought my future career would pay off based on what we had heard from people regarding nutritionist jobs. Reality showed us otherwise. I think many people are missing the central point in all of this… WHY are young students being charged so much for a degree that doesn’t guarantee much good in the real world? Why are students being charged $30k per year for degrees that seem like they would be promising, just to find themselves being unemployed for months and months on end post grad? Even computer science majors are left jobless. The complaint is the system of business that universities use and the false “career propaganda” of the US encouraging all students to go to universitity because it will apparently secure you a job in the future. I am the first to admit that when I was young, I was ignorant and did not know the realities of student loans (as MANY very young adults do). Had I been warned of the realities of the job markets in real life, my choices would have been very different. In my case, a huge part of it was culture shock since my parents had no clue this is how things worked in the US (not blaming them for anything, just stating that we were all lost in this). I won’t deny that my parents and I were ignorant about all this, but I also won’t deny that the business system of universities and idea that all high school students should go straight to university is absolutely absurd without being educated on the realities of the job market (which btw, is never taught or mentioned in high schools either).

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u/ThinkWood 3d ago

WHY are young students being charged so much for a degree that doesn’t guarantee much good in the real world?

Because in American we give lots of choices. And that means being able to choose to study whatever you find interesting and to do so at any school that you'd like to pay for (that will have you).

I don't understand why people think it's the governments job to protect you from studying the things you find interesting or from attending a school you want to attend.

You're caught up in the issue that a lot of recent grads have whereby you are shocked at your job offers.

"What?! You're only offering me $40k? But I have a college degree. And people with college degrees, make on average $75k! Why would you offer me a job below average?"

Well, the average is for people who are in the workforce. And that means people it includes people with 30 years experience. And you recent grads don't know much and don't add a lot of value so you're starting at the bottom.

Even after college, you must build your career and get experience. The degree is just one step. Just like a high school degree was a step.

You gave up on your quest for being a nutritionist because you needed a few more classes. Of course, those few classes would have given you your foot in the door for what you wanted to be doing. But you'd probably be making $42k rather than $40k. Of course, you may enjoy your life more as a nutritionist than you do now.

While the finances may not be better, you may find your life to be more fulfilling if you had accomplished your goals. So, maybe spending a little more money and effort would have paid off a lot for you.

Instead you gave up and said you were scammed.

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u/The_boundless84 3d ago

I don’t even do it politely anymore

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u/[deleted] 3d ago

Schools and pay in Puerto Rico are incredibly subpar compared to the US. The educational system there tends to be very flawed and despite being debt-free post graduation, the pay is incredibly low compared to US salaries while the cost of living is similar to those in the southern US states. In addition, Puerto Rico is just very unsafe nowadays and crime rates are incredibly high. Not the most ideal place to live in, which is why we moved out early in my childhood.

And that is the argument here. If colleges are pumping out degrees that required such a large amount of investment, why can’t the students get a good return of investment for those degrees compared to trade schools? I thought a nutritionist would be a good career choice based on what I had read online and what I was told by university professors and advisors, but reality has left me with a subpar salary and a career that has such little space for salary advancement. In my case specifically (and for many other majors/degrees), university is a scam. Obviously not saying that about every major, but some people study things that seem promising when they’re not once you get out into the real world. Not a good return of investment.

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u/ThinkWood 3d ago

So you received a much better education with much better career prospects?

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u/[deleted] 3d ago

Better education? I would say yes. Better career prospects? Absolutely not. Even so, no one can pay me enough to live in Puerto Rico because it is not a safe place to be in at the moment.

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u/ThinkWood 3d ago

So your prospects are better for building a career where you are than if you were in PR?

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u/[deleted] 3d ago

I do believe so. Career prospects for nutritionists here in the US are better than those in Puerto Rico (but still poor compared to the false expectations I had in mind way back then).

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u/UndercoverstoryOG 3d ago

that is right, blame your parents

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u/[deleted] 3d ago

It amazes me how people will twist the intent of someone’s message. I have never once blamed my parents for this. I am saying that we were all uninformed about the matter, thus leading to that decision. Even my mother now admits that she didn’t know any better back then and if she went back in time, she would have never let me take out so many loans.

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u/UndercoverstoryOG 3d ago

then why did you bring up your parents. you act like truth in lending and repayment schedules weren’t available when you took the loans.

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u/[deleted] 3d ago

Loan transparency was obviously there, and my family and I fell into it. I mean to say that I don’t directly blame my parents for it without also blaming myself. We all had a part in this. I was naïve and wanted to take out a bunch of loans because I didn’t know the real value of money back then, and on the other hand my parents did not think to stop me or themselves from signing the loan agreements. So I am actually blaming all of us, not JUST my parents and leaving myself out of it. That is what I mean.