More Than 40% of Student Borrowers Aren’t Making Payments

I took a full time class load and also worked part time through college. It wasn't that bad,(in fact it was good) and it was fairly commonplace at the school I went to.

Is this not the case anymore?

I have several reactions to this report.

First of all, I think it demonstrates that American university tuition is way too high. So much of that money goes toward things like sports teams, climbing walls, emotional support dogs, and other things that just don't have to be a part of the college experience. American universities have an unbelievable amount of staff that isn't about education or research.

The thing is, there's little incentive for universities to cut back, because no matter what they charge, they have willing customers. And those customers aren't paying the bills -- not at the time of purchase, and perhaps never at all (as this article states).

Secondly, the notion of work -- not work-study programs, but real work -- should probably become more prominent among US students. In Israel, where I now live, most students work at part-time jobs, and juggle both work and school. It's not ideal, especially since many of them also have families, but it does help to keep debts relatively low.

Thirdly, I think that it's too easy to take out loans. I took out loans for my undergraduate degree, and was fortunate to pay them back within a few years of graduating. I then took out loans for my PhD, and while I've been managing to pay them back faster than expected, no one ever asked me at the time, "Are you sure you'll be able to pay these back?" A bit of discussion at the time of taking out loans, and looking at options, or even giving financial counseling, might have helped me or others to take out less.

Finally, the notion that you cannot ever get rid of your government-sponsored tuition loans is crazy. I'm not saying that people should declare bankruptcy at the drop of a hat, or that there shouldn't be consequences. But people have issues, and excluding student loans from bankruptcy -- which is intended to give people a new start -- seems extremely unfair to the people who need this tool most of all.

No wonder people are just not paying their loans back; if declaring bankruptcy isn't an option, and they can't pay, then they'll just not pay.

It depends on the rigor of your institution, of the program you're in, and what constitutes "full time."

At the institution I attended, FT was 12-18 credit hours in a semester. You could take up to 21 with permission from the administration and your professors, and up to 24 with permission + paying additionally for the 3 credits.

The difference between 12 credits and 18 in terms of work load and scheduling hassles is astronomical yet both are full time. Our professions always said 1 hour in class = 3 hours outside of class. Assuming that held true (it rarely did on an individual class level but on a semester level it was pretty close), 12 credits = 48 hours a week and 18 = 72.

If you're only taking 12-15 credits you probably should have a 10-15 hour/week job. If you're taking 18 I wouldn't even do work study on campus for gas money, you just won't have the time unless you want no social life.

I went to college in Brazil, here the class load is fixed for most universities (ie: you don't choose what classes you will go, they will hand to you a list of the ones you are signed up for each semester).

Although the classes themselves took half a day (started at 7:30, finished at 13:00) the coursework we had to do was incredibly high, teachers never coordinated, they just assumed that you had all free time of the world.

In one semester I had to quit my job, and slept to little that I got incredibly sick, my apartment reeked sugar, because I was drinking coca-cola and energy drinks so fast that empty bottles were piling up near my computer, I slept on average 4 hours per day, and went from 110kg to 125kg

And mind you, this was to do coursework, NOT any kind of paying work, when I finished university my net worth was incredibly negative, right now it STILL is negative, I am living with my parents right now to dedicate 100% of my income to debt paying, and still don't see any perspective of actually paying it (specially because when I consider the past year or two, the average INTEREST I had to pay, was higher than my average income).

I question whether we should be shocked that we have taught such little financial literacy by the age of 17.

But the truth is that the kids mowing the lawn each weekend are getting rarer.