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USC pushed a $115k online degree – graduates got low salaries, huge debts

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Re: USC pushed a $115k online degree – graduates got low salaries, huge debts

#231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/01/college-graduate-starting-sa... Those with college degrees make more. So if you forgive student loan debt, you're giving a ton of money to people who are largely doing very well. One can make a large variety of very stupid life-altering choices at 25, these people should have known better. I would say, again unless you're trying to be a doctor or a lawyer your student loans should be c…

> you're giving a ton of money to people who are largely doing very well. Make more =/= "doing real well". Some are doing well, some aren't, many are struggling. And the ones who are just getting by aren't having kids, which is really going to bite this nation in the long run. >One can make a large variety of very stupid life-altering choices at 25 Where's that 25 coming from, eh? People apply to colleges when they'r…

https://studentaid.gov/understand-aid/types/loans/subsidized...

For 3rd year and above >$12,500-No more than $5,500 of this amount may be in subsidized loans

For sake of this example, let's say they let you take out this much for all 4 years. That leaves you at 50k. This assumes your parents can't take out a Plus loan.

Your very unlikely to be able to get 200k in undergrad loans without a co-signer. If you don't have a co signer your effectively capped at 50k.

This is a story about grad student debt. This is a story about, at a minimum 22 year olds ( normally a bit older) deciding to make a choice. You can make a ton of life altering choices at 22.

If we just got rid of loans for grad school, we're taking away an entire life path. For many taking grad school loans leads to a much higher paying career. You don't hear stories about someone who takes out 100k in grad school loans, but then lands a job paying 145k.

https://www.usnews.com/education/best-graduate-schools/payin...

>The median earnings for full-time, year-round workers holding bachelor's degrees was $66,536 in 2019, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. With a master's degree, median earnings for full-time employees jumped to $81,636. With a doctoral degree, median earnings were $113,578, and the amount for individuals holding a professional degree was $127,487.

None of these people in this article were forced into blowing $200,000 on a degree which isn't going to help them make much more money. The best thing about America is people generally do have a lot of leeway in how they live their lives. And the dark side of the European system is many people just can't get into any type of college, I've met these kids attending community college in America since the European schools wouldn't take them.

By far my biggest disappointment with the current administration is not pushing more for free community college, that would nudge people in the right direction. I went to community college and I worked and that's how I paid my living expenses.

I was working full time, already making 100k a year ,when I finished my BA at a CSU.

Let me ride this tangent for a bit, in California you have two state school systems. You have the UC system, which treats college like a vacation with a hint of learning. These schools are actively hostile to anyone with a job.

Then you have my alma mata, the CSU system. There you'll actually have flexible schedules where you can work a full-time job and still attend school. Of course UCs are viewed as more prestigious. Adults have a right to make choices. Everyone who attended this USC program wanted to plaster USC on their resume. They all had the option of attending cheaper schools.

It's not nearly as simple as looking at a few extreme cases and deciding to forgive a trillion dollars in student loan debt. I'd agree more regulation is needed here, but in general people need to take more personal responsibility.

Re: USC pushed a $115k online degree – graduates got low salaries, huge debts

#232

Ehh eh. I went to a CSU for like 6k a year. If you want to be elitist and attend the most expensive school possible, you have to eventually pay for it. > Ms. Fowler, a 2018 graduate, enjoyed the program but owes $307,000 in total student-loan debt, including about $200,000 from the master’s degree. She said she earns $48,000 as a community mental-health therapist in Mount Pleasant, Iowa. This translates into paying 3…

Student loans that can’t be wiped out in a bankruptcy should not be a thing, in my opinion. Combine that with the loans being guaranteed by the government & you get a system that is ripe for abuse by the people in power. There’s an incentive to create low quality, high margin degrees for profit. It’s horrible.

Re: USC pushed a $115k online degree – graduates got low salaries, huge debts

#233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you're giving a ton of money to people who are largely doing very well. Make more =/= "doing real well". Some are doing well, some aren't, many are struggling. And the ones who are just getting by aren't having kids, which is really going to bite this nation in the long run. >One can make a large variety of very stupid life-altering choices at 25 Where's that 25 coming from, eh? People apply to colleges when they'r…

https://studentaid.gov/understand-aid/types/loans/subsidized... For 3rd year and above >$12,500-No more than $5,500 of this amount may be in subsidized loans For sake of this example, let's say they let you take out this much for all 4 years. That leaves you at 50k. This assumes your parents can't take out a Plus loan. Your very unlikely to be able to get 200k in undergrad loans without a co-signer. If you don't have…

>Your very unlikely to be able to get 200k in undergrad loans without a co-signer ... This assumes your parents can't take out a Plus loan

Sure, but plenty of parents do take out PLUS loans - which are capped at whatever the tuition is. Aside from that, many lenders are handing out loans without cosigners[1]. And as the 2008 crisis has shown us, that's not an error: they are gambling.

>This is a story about grad student debt

OK, but the discussion is about student debt, not grad student debt. I think it's reasonable to assume that most people would be talking about undergraduate debt cancelation.

As for those absurdly expensive Masters degrees - the one in the article is borderline a scam.

>If we just got rid of loans for grad school, we're taking away an entire life path.

Again, it's quite a leap from debt cancelation to loans not being available to anyone ever, particularly for grad school. As you said, graduate school students are older, and graduate degrees often do pay off. Why would the banks pass on a money-making opportunity?

The degrees that are a solid investment would not disappear (and neither would loans for them), but the scammy ones (like in the article) would.

>By far my biggest disappointment with the current administration is not pushing more for free community college

Amen to that.

>Then you have my alma mater, the CSU system

OK, off-topic, but I'm going to live right next to CSU East Bay campus, and would appreciate any info about that system. One of my 2022 goals is getting involved in community outreach (math education / talks / etc); trying to remedy the damage done by our education systems when it comes to mathematics, particularly hoping to reach working adults.

Would love to hear your thoughts about that.

[1] https://loans.usnews.com/student-loans-without-co-signer

Re: USC pushed a $115k online degree – graduates got low salaries, huge debts

#234
post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't agree with that take. Without government backing, the alternative is that banks would not lend. Just like they don't currently lend to the poor and that market is instead filled by predatory loan sharks and payday lenders. In other words, the purpose is not to help the banks, but to help people get the loans in the first place. However, the unintended consequences are that the banks are incentivized to make w…

If payday loans didn't exist, those using it would... wait for payday and defer their consumption by 1-2 weeks. Usurious loans aren't a solution and only enable foolish behavior.

A lot of people would accept the shame and just ask a friend or family member.

Re: USC pushed a $115k online degree – graduates got low salaries, huge debts

#235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, adults can make poor choices. Agreed. Said choices should be constrained though. She wouldn't be allowed to buy a 300k car with no possibility of bankruptcy. The lender is made of adults as well. They also made poor choices. Why is a group of adults hiding behind a piece of paper allowed to be saved from their poor choices while an individual not?

The lender is probably the federal government. The make the political choice to make loans without asking about credit worthiness, because we mistakenly treat university education as the only path to upward mobility. The schools abuse that social status.

If that is the case then the loan is just an unorthodox method of taxation. In that sense there should obviously be a limit to how much tax you owe to the government otherwise it becomes abusive. It also means that the government shouldn't expect you to repay the whole sum.

Re: USC pushed a $115k online degree – graduates got low salaries, huge debts

#236
post #175

Ehh eh. I went to a CSU for like 6k a year. If you want to be elitist and attend the most expensive school possible, you have to eventually pay for it. > Ms. Fowler, a 2018 graduate, enjoyed the program but owes $307,000 in total student-loan debt, including about $200,000 from the master’s degree. She said she earns $48,000 as a community mental-health therapist in Mount Pleasant, Iowa. This translates into paying 3…

My favorite idea for this issue is that the gov't should pay for college, except it should pay a multiple of the student's increase in earned taxable income averaged over the 5 years preceding and following the degree. High school students would have near zero income, so it would mostly be a multiple of their 5 year average income after graduation. This pays directly for what the gov't wants (increase in the student'…

It's a nice idea but people will insist that they should have the right to get $115k in debt for a degree that doesn't let them repay their debt.

Re: USC pushed a $115k online degree – graduates got low salaries, huge debts

#237

Ehh eh. I went to a CSU for like 6k a year. If you want to be elitist and attend the most expensive school possible, you have to eventually pay for it. > Ms. Fowler, a 2018 graduate, enjoyed the program but owes $307,000 in total student-loan debt, including about $200,000 from the master’s degree. She said she earns $48,000 as a community mental-health therapist in Mount Pleasant, Iowa. This translates into paying 3…

Yes, adults can make poor choices. Agreed. Said choices should be constrained though. She wouldn't be allowed to buy a 300k car with no possibility of bankruptcy. The lender is made of adults as well. They also made poor choices. Why is a group of adults hiding behind a piece of paper allowed to be saved from their poor choices while an individual not?

> She wouldn't be allowed to buy a 300k car with no possibility of bankruptcy.

There are two ways to interpret what you said:

1. Allowing bankruptcy would basically eliminate student loans as a thing, for the typical "moral hazard" reasons. So it's not a realistic proposition.

2. Limiting the amount to something more reasonable, that's something I would actually support. Say, 15-20K/yr, inflation adjusted? Education cost for those financing themselves would also drop considerably.

Re: USC pushed a $115k online degree – graduates got low salaries, huge debts

#238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://studentaid.gov/understand-aid/types/loans/subsidized... For 3rd year and above >$12,500-No more than $5,500 of this amount may be in subsidized loans For sake of this example, let's say they let you take out this much for all 4 years. That leaves you at 50k. This assumes your parents can't take out a Plus loan. Your very unlikely to be able to get 200k in undergrad loans without a co-signer. If you don't have…

>Your very unlikely to be able to get 200k in undergrad loans without a co-signer ... This assumes your parents can't take out a Plus loan Sure, but plenty of parents do take out PLUS loans - which are capped at whatever the tuition is. Aside from that, many lenders are handing out loans without cosigners[1]. And as the 2008 crisis has shown us, that's not an error: they are gambling. >This is a story about grad stud…

The CSU system is very much, like community college. You have a very good mixture of highly motivated students who for financial reasons prefer a CSU. You also have people who are basically just drifting, and unsure of if they even belong in college. This is okay, but be aware their will be a very large motivation gap from student to student.

Re: USC pushed a $115k online degree – graduates got low salaries, huge debts

#239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But as it stands right now, people are equally incentivized to take degrees for passion as they are for profit, possibly to their own detriment when one comes with misery from poverty and the other with misery from golden handcuffs. Not everyone is cut out for a STEM career. You can't turn cavemen into electrical engineers if the aptitude isn't there, right? It's not a big leap to say that some people will prioritize…

This might be a very unpopular opinion here. I'll mention it anyway. Free tuition. Germany has had zero tuition university for quite some time. And though they allowed charging tuition again a while ago, it was capped at something like 600EUR (?) per semester. Many universities apparently also went back to not charging tuition again. It works well enough if you ask me. I got a great education with zero student debt.…

I don't think it is very controversial to increase funding for public state schools so that they can lower prices. USC though is a private school that costs a ridiculous $81,659 a year [0] and I don't want my tax dollars paying that much to a private institution.

[0]: https://admission.usc.edu/learn/cost-financial-aid/

Re: USC pushed a $115k online degree – graduates got low salaries, huge debts

#240

Ehh eh. I went to a CSU for like 6k a year. If you want to be elitist and attend the most expensive school possible, you have to eventually pay for it. > Ms. Fowler, a 2018 graduate, enjoyed the program but owes $307,000 in total student-loan debt, including about $200,000 from the master’s degree. She said she earns $48,000 as a community mental-health therapist in Mount Pleasant, Iowa. This translates into paying 3…

Student loans that can’t be wiped out in a bankruptcy should not be a thing, in my opinion. Combine that with the loans being guaranteed by the government & you get a system that is ripe for abuse by the people in power. There’s an incentive to create low quality, high margin degrees for profit. It’s horrible.

The problem with that is that no bank is going to give a kid with no assets $81,659 a year [0] that they can just wipe out instantly after college.

Thus you'll likely create a two tier system of colleges. One will be low cost enough that declaring bankruptcy after college is not worth it. These will likely be crappy because they cannot afford good facilities or the best professors. Then you will have the super expensive ones with nice facilities and the best professors that only kids with rich parents who can pay for it can go.

[0]: https://admission.usc.edu/learn/cost-financial-aid/

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