Here's your degree -- and a lawsuit
Some universities are suing students who can't or won't repay their school loans.
Compared with earlier generations, current college students face a very different world once they enter the workforce. Unemployment remains high, entry-level jobs are scarce, and many available jobs require skills that simply did not exist 20 and even 10 years ago. Recent graduates are also having more trouble paying off their college loans, and many are being threatened with legal action from their alma maters for nonpayment of tuition and other bills.
The University of Pennsylvania filed six lawsuits against former students in November, demanding repayments from $13,000 to $27,000. A university spokeswoman told the Daily Pennsylvanian that students who graduate or leave the university with an outstanding balance will see their debt transferred to the school's collections office. Past-due balances, she said, are subject to a late-payment penalty of 1.5% per month.
And universities have other unique ways of pressuring students who can't or won't pay their bills. Kenya Shujaa, a former graduate student at Penn, faced a lawsuit and also saw the university withhold access to her transcript, which she said "limited the kinds of jobs that I could have." But Shujaa, who settled her debts last year, says she understands the university's actions. "That's the rule when you owe them money," she said.
Students who borrowed funds for college and earned bachelor's degrees in 2011 left school with an average of $26,600 in student loan debt, up 5% from 2010, according to a recent report by the Project on Student Debt, by The Institute for College Access and Success.
Last year, the Department of Education reported a 13.4% national student loan default rate -- with for-profit institutions having the highest average three-year default rate of 22.7%, public institutions at 11% and private, nonprofit schools at 7.5%.
"We continue to be concerned about default rates and want to ensure that all borrowers have the tools to manage their debt," U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in a press release. "In addition to helping borrowers, we will also hold schools accountable for ensuring their students are not saddled with unmanageable student loan debt."
Not surprisingly, educators say getting a college degree increases a student's chances of finding a job that pays well. But some also stress that both students and parents need to educate themselves about the loan process.
"Students and parents need to know that, even at similar looking schools, debt levels can be wildly different," said Lauren Asher, the president of The Institute for College Access and Success. "And if they do need to borrow to get through school, federal student loans, with options like income-based repayment, are the safest way to go."
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You can't get blood from a turnip. This is just the next shoe falling on tax payers. The responsible working tax paying middle class person is the "unwilling consumer" for all the deadbeats leaching off the government.
Same thing they did with housing......... O hey .. you can't afford a house here is a loan anyway we will let the tax payer pick up the tab as we save the bankers.
College is expensive. Don't major in something that is a "feel good" major. Sure, that communications or art history degree allowed for some bodacious beer drinking while at school, but isn't paying you back post-graduation since you decided to spend $90k on the freaking thing. It is infuriating when people blame this, that, or the other thing for the ballooning student loan debt. I had over twice the average student debt and am almost done with repayment. It is my debt, I took it out and I am responsible for it. I have never missed a payment or been late with one. I have not been able to visit Europe as much as I want, or buy a new Benz, and had to wait unitl I'm in my 30's to buy a house because of that debt, but I only blame myself. Take some responsiblity for crying out loud. Stop blaming everyone else for your financial woes and open your eyes to the big wide world. Sometimes it will kick your a$$.
Wow....... where does this "you owe me" mentality come from?
if i borrow money from you, and I don't pay it back, it's solely a problem between you and I and not anyone else.
If I am the kind of person who demands someone else gets involved, I am a leech, and not a smart person.
If I am a group of people who supports and demands others get involved because I can't handle my own affairs, I am a liberal who thinks "someone owes me because I don't have enough skill to manage my own life."
No wonder there are articles like this.
Colleges have gotten a sweetheart deal for too long. These student loans are backed by the government so lenders are not concerned with your ability to repay, they will get their money back one way or the other. The schools are not encouraged to compete and charge unrealistic rates for classes and books, what do they care the loans will cover it. These loans cannot be set aside, you can't EVER get out of them, so the tudent is on the hook perpetually FOREVER.
The schools offer useless degrees or degrees that have very limited opportnities to make a living. I am not saying that music and art are not necessary but the market for most of these students would be working as a pinter of houses or a clerk in a record store. There are many many other examples such as ethnic or gender or lifestyle specific degrees. While it is good to have these areas of study available it is unfair to charge $80,000 or more for a degree that virtually worthless in perparing a student for the job world. Most of the people that have jobs relating to these type of degree are the ones teaching the classes.
In my opinion, colleges are the next bubble. Tuition increases always seem to be double to triple
inflation. Student loan rates were very high in the last decade, and the coursework appears to
outdated. Job related skills can probably be learned somewhere else. Already our colleges have
significantly more foreign students just to fill up the classes.
Since so much funding comes from alumni, litigating against them seems to be biting the hand
that will eventually feed. If the colleges don't believe these students will be the next generation of donors, then they are in real trouble as the product that they are selling is overpriced.
Eventually, the college experience may be like Amazon, order your course DVD and go to kiosk for testing. College will be for liberal arts education, similar to what it was like in the past.
Once again the only making sense on this feed is . Thank you for your insight. American's are brainwashed. The Capitalist structure doesn't work for education. Furthermore, the endless taxes paid to the government, by lowest earners is an outrage to our society. The Government has yet to get this right, and love to puni**** citizens.
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