Of course you have FAFSA which is soooooooo helpful. Word of advice to all high school kids, unless you are living in the ghetto, starving, have parents that work at McDonalds or parents that are crack addicts, FAFSA is not going to help you at all. My issue is this, currently my nephew has been accepted into Carnegie Mellon, Boston College, Columbia, and Georgetown. Since his parents do not make below 60k a year, his family would have to pay around 25k per year for most of those schools (he has been given some scholarships and financial aid offers which do not involve loans). My nephew has decided that he will attend Columbia. Anyways my nephew is a lucky guy whose parents are actually paying for his years in college and his parents barely make six figures. Other kids I have known have taken out loans to attend a top university and walked out with debt which has haunted them for most of their lives. I find it sad that people who want to better themselves by going to college are charged heavily with tuition and other things that they walk out with tons of debt, just because they want to go to college. If you aren't Black or Hispanic, if you can't play football or basketball real well, or if you aren't starving on the side of the street, chances are you are going to walk out of college with debt which will haunt you for a long time. Does anyone else think this is just a sad situation?|||I have a $60,000 college debt I have to pay. I do not make $60,000 a year, needless to say I am stuck for life with this student loan debt. I found a site with great info on student loans. http://www.studentloansinfo.org|||College is what you do so you can work for other people. Only a fool would work for someone else. You don't need a college degree to own, to organize projects, or to come up with ideas, you only need a college degree to prove your skills to some "human resources" type who isn't going to pay you a fair cut.|||I had to drop out of high school, because I was to poor to attend that. I needed cloths and food. High school wasn't going to get that for me. I worked and saved money, so I could enroll in a community college. Spent 30 hrs there and did what I had to to make the top grades. I got a scholarship and attended the university. If I can overcome that, you can figure out a way.|||Yeah I feel you. I feel kinda horrible that the decision for me to attend the University of Michigan is dependent on whether or not I get financial aid. I really wish to go there, and I know their engineering program is great, yet if I cant afford it I wont be going. Especially since I'm out of state its like 45 grand for me without aid, whoo.......|||No. Just like your nephew - any one that works hard can get scholarships and grants. Kids don't HAVE TO attend a TOP college. Many successful people have gone to state universities -- or **gasp** been successful without college. It is a choice to incur student debt. Some kids actually WORK - like a real job - to pay for their college. What a concept!!!!|||Yeah, you get tons of free money if you fall under a certain income threshold. You can get 2,500/semester right now off Pell grants and I think Obama made them 5,500 or something like that. It is actually becoming more and more inciting to become a little poorer. I smell socialism. You do less work... and by 'doing' less work you get free money! YAY!|||Yes, it's real sad that you have to pay for a service. God forbid anyone pay for something. If federal government would keep their asses out of it in the first place, it wouldn't be so expensive. I've seen tuition rise to jaw-dropping figures. Don't tell me it's the college's fault.|||ummm, college is a service you buy, not a basic right. it's expensive. just like other expensive stuff, some people can't afford it. that hardly constitutes punishment.|||I think you might want to check up on your nephew more often, the admission criteria to those kinds of schools is similar to what it takes to get FAFSA to help you.|||Now if only there was a solution, like state schools, that offer comparable education with a much lower tuition. Oh wait a second, there are.|||Stop Whining... There are NUMEROUS scholarships out there to pay for college, and if you can't get into a BIG, EXPENSIVE college, there is always the more affordable Community College...|||Are you proposing that they take away assistance for minorities? Or giving assistance to more people?|||it's an amazing situation.|||There nothing better than see everyone feel like a minority...|||Yeah. College is expensive. It was for me too, not only were my parents too broke to help out, I did not qualify for much. I got a job and worked my way through. I will say it was a huge struggle and it took forever. My sister graduated in her mid 30s. Life's a *****.|||There are plenty of colleges that give a person a good education but are not "big name" institutions, and don't cost that much. Also, a kid should be able to attend college near enough to where he lives that he doesn't have to reside on-campus. Other than those situations, I don't see where it is all that "sad" that the kid comes out with debt. He/she doesn't want to just "go to college" - they want a prestigious degree so they can make the "big bucks.' Sorry - you won't get sympathy from me, Clyde.|||Barely making six figures? Forgive me if I'm not shedding a tear here man. Govt. just took over the student loan industry, so we'll see if those loans will haunt for that long now. I joined the USMC in 04. In 08 when I got out I hopped right into college, and this year Im transferring to a University (CSU... public btw). If he wants education join the Marines and get the post 9/11 gi bill.|||Is it a sad situation? Take on loans isn't terrible. It depends on what they got out of it. If they got a better job than they could have got without it and the extra amount of money they make covers the loans then in the long run they are better off. Do some college students get an education that doesn't pay off? Yes. Parents need to learn that college is a business and stop telling their kids that they have to go to it especially if the kid doesn't even know what they want to do when they get out. This goes double for four year universities. There are alot of jobs that pay very well that can be done with only a one year certificate or a two year degree. Parents should help their teens find out what they are good at instead of shoving them into four year universities and have them graduate with degrees that aren't worth anything.|||Of course. Especially in the age of information. It would be nice if online classes could be offered free of charge, with an exemption test offered in person, at the end of 4 years and if anyone can pass with an 90+ percentile, they could get their bachelor's degree without having physically attended a university. This would encourage high achievement and a huge reward for doing well. It will benefit the student AND society.|||There are thousands of grants and scholarships that go unused because people don't apply for them. Remember the commercials with the crazy dude wearing the suit with all the question marks on it? His book was for real. It actually listed all the possible grants and scholarships that were out there that anyone (not just a minority) could apply for. Yes you'll walk out of college with debt, but college graduates get picked for jobs before workers with actual experience in the industry, and generally make more money than their uneducated counterparts. So you'll make more money in the long run and be able to pay off those debts. Your cousin could have chosen a state college instead of an expensive school. He chose one which would cost a bundle and sadle him with that kind of debt. I'd feel bad for him if he was blind sided by it, but he is knowingly accepting that amount of debt already.|||I don't think it's sad. All of the schools you have mentioned are private schools and are very high in demand. There's no reason for a private business not to be able to set appropriate price for their service. With nearly 2,000 colleges and universities, in the U.S., it is possible to go for cheaper options. Your nephew could've gone to a public college/university, which have a much lower price tag and with a certain level of financial support he might have been able to even obtain his degree debt-free.|||College education was not meant to be for everyone, but unfortunately, the youth of America has been sold on the idea that a high school education is worthless, and a college degree is a must. This illusion has been created in order to offset the erosion of manufacturing in America, with all the manufacturing jobs going to China, no one can make a decent living in the service sector. The fact is that we now have a glut of highly educated college graduates that cannot find a job. The solution is not to be able to send everyone to college, but to regain our industrial capacity, so that making a living with your hands is not such a stigma and something to be proud of again.

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