Who's Profiting From $1.2 Trillion of Federal Student Loans? “There is a large student-loan industrial complex. Rising costs of college and flat family incomes have created enormous business opportunity for every step of the loan process.”

The biggest problem is a lack of financial knowledge and management. It is expecting those with limited knowledge to make very large decisions, which will affect them in the future.

I know that many people in college now are looking at this situation and thinking it might be wise to just jump into grad school to put off the debt for later, but I would reject that simply because you may still not have the right kind of financial knowledge that happens as you get a little older.

I worked for several years between college and grad school and am very glad that I did. In that time I became much more realistic about what I wanted to do and how I wanted to make money. At the same time, I lowered my expectations so that I could focus on attainable goals. In my 20's I had to move back home to my parents house due to several reasons, so I took classes at the community college nearby to keep mentally aware and pass the time while applying to jobs and well-known schools. I eventually got into the good public university a short drive away, was accepted into a decent program, and flourished because I kept making concrete steps and goals for myself.

Now I have no debt, am making very good money, have to turn down recruiters for jobs, and am pretty happy in most aspects of my life. I know that if I had gone to the well-known school I would probably be in over $50,000 in debt due to living expenses and tuition. I know this because several of my peers went to the expensive one and we both work at the same job.

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TL:DR - Get as cheap a college/grad school degree as you can. Name recognition of the school doesn't matter as long as you put in the work. Doing grad school when older give you better mental preparation.

/r/news Thread Link - bloomberg.com