>Be european >Recently finished my industrial engineering degree with fairly good marks, working half time and earning a decent salary. >Decide I would like to do a Master's degree in USA >Scared shitless of the prices and loans Veeky Forums always talks about >Most of the unis actually offer financial aid programmes where you would have to pay like $3000 for a year instead of the full $70 000 per year What is this?
You always hear in here about people with $100 000 loans that they would have to pay for the rest of their lives.
Are those aids some kind of covert loan or something?
this site is mostly populated by undergrads who have no idea how graduate programs work. The only people who worry about those kinds of loans are those in industries that have insane earning potential, like doctors/finances/business. Those generally you pay for an education. But graduate programs in engineering and life sciences pay you.
Charles Clark
Personally, I don't take the opinion of anyone who is not a hard scientist seriously. They have as much weight as the opinion of a child to me.
Aiden Brooks
So why I do keep seeing around here people with engineering or math degrees that are still complaining about their $90 000 loans?
Henry Roberts
If everything is fine and harmless, why is total student debt in the USA growing into what seems to be the next big bubble?
Jayden Moore
they are talking about their undergrad. Undergrad is big business, and there are only a few ways you can afford it. loans parents scholarships/working hard/being insanely smart
most people who dont have middle class parents but who are not recognized as geniuses/super high potential have to take out loans in order to go to undergrad, which can be massively expensive (undergrad at my uni is... 55k a year?). so student loans exist, where you can take out like 220k over 4 years and pay it back over 30-40. Those same kids are looking for jobs with their BS in *science* which really only qualifies them for lab monkey work with really low ceiling caps (70-80k if you're lucky), but it's monotonous and boring. Then they pay off loans. Or you go to grad school, pay the minimum loan amount with your stipend to not fuck over your credit, then get a good industry job with your PhD making 70-80k starting (NOT ACADEMIA), then pay off the loans.
if you're a smart kid you'd just apply for massive amounts of scholarships in highschool/college, there are assloads, just few people actually apply for them
Landon Williams
Holy fuck. People starting into life with 220k debt, only to have a chance (!) for a good life
The USA is basically neo-feudalism, why do people accept this? In cicilzed parts of the world, a degree costs you exactly zero above regular taxation
Matthew Mitchell
>If everything is fine and harmless i never said that. I said a lot of people here claim to not want to go for graduate school because it will cost them more money or they have loans, showing they have no idea what they are talking about. student debt because of predatory loan practices focused on undergrads, especially those getting useless degrees, is a real thing, but doesnt apply on this board as much as everyone here is more employable than those degrees
Cameron Reed
So there are actually people that get 200k into debt for, say, a gender studies degree, without having middle class parents?
Isnt this basic kind of financial responsibility taught at American schools?
Eli Perez
>So there are actually people that get 200k into debt for, say, a gender studies degree, without having middle class parents? i mean that's a bit of an extreme, but it's possible. Places that cost that much generally are old prestigious places that focus on STEM, law, or finance/business though. but yea, my highschool ex-gf went to a 50k a year school for 4 years for a degree in art.
>Isnt this basic kind of financial responsibility taught at American schools? NO and it's terrible. id be willing to bet 90% of highschool graduates dont know what APR is or how to calculate it. Finances are just not taught, especially managing one's finances.
if you think 220k is a lot, medical school costs money generally, and can be 120-150k per year, so you'll start life with like half a million in debt or so. But you should be able to pay that off easily within 5-10 years with a doctor's salary
Anthony Bailey
Sheit but according to most unis, if your parents earn less than $65 000, you will get all the tuition for free, no loans.
european univerisites are free in most countries the most expensive tuition is in UK, but even there it doesn't come close to those in US idk what you're all talking about
Luke Ross
>college.harvard.edu/financial-aid/applying-aid that's a private university with money to throw around, just their policy. That's just to ensure really smart kids who may be in shit financial situations dont pass up applying to them. that's not like a universal thing
Gavin Nguyen
Oh now I get it, that explains why the unis that don't have as much name as the ivy league ones don't offer anything like that. Thanks
David Morris
It amuses me to no end that in poorfag countries like Romania, education is free, while in the Shining City On A Hill, you start into life with debt and interest chained to your leg.
Ryan Gray
Who draws these pictures? It's like they're professionally unprofessionally drawn
Landon Brooks
The Finnish master race
Isaac Peterson
I'm so fucking glad I don't live in the states. If I did, I wouldn't have gone to university.
Brandon Nguyen
US high schools don't teach financial stability to students.Economics classes aren't offered til college itself.
Brayden Young
To add, the US financial system is kind of built on the existence of idiots or low intelligent peoples. Finance plans for smartphones and tv's is a thing here. Look here, this store is built on good ole American over indulgence. We Americans are the least frugal people's on Earth for the worst of it. rentacenter.com/
Jaxon Thomas
Why don't you Euros come here to work? You have zero debt plus the wages here are better. Is a work visa for 1st World nations that hard to get?
Evan Long
whats apr tho
Gabriel Watson
it's an interest rate. it's kind of important because you end up paying more shekels for a higher apr. On the other side the banks pay you interest for savings and CDs but it goes no where near what us commoners pay to the banks in loans. Take an econ course user, it's amazing how fucked we are by the banks.
Landon Cruz
To be honest the growing student debt problem isnt a problem with the system, it stems from the issue that 90%+ of all humans are completely retarded. I went through the student loan system, got a degree in EE and had my student loans paid off within a year. I was given nothing from anyone, except the government who have me $12,000 in pell grants because my mother, who i lived with when I started college, was poor. I lived on campus throughout college and moved from my dorm straight into an apartment. Anyone who cant do what i did either made a poor choice in their degree, or is financially braindead. The problem comes from this stupid mentality of “do what you love for a living, dont worry about the money”. I cant tell you how many times i heard that in highschool. That shit is great when it works, but it only works in like 1% of cases. Most of the time either: A) What you love is something that many other people also love. The job market is saturated and if you are lucky enough to find a job (most arent) you will be making shit pay and barely be able to afford loan payments. Or B) What you love becomes something you hate after a few years of being forced to do it 50 hours a week, and you need a change of scenery. You go back to school and accumulate more student debt.
The smart thing to do is be real with people. The world doesnt fucking care what you like to do. Some jobs are more lucrative and prevalent than others and that should weigh heavily on your descision on what to go to school for. If you are fine with being poor then sure, go to school for art history. If you want to be successful, go into STEM or business. If that makes you feel oppressed then congratulations, you have realized that nobody is special. The system is set up to be slavery with the illusion of freedom. Play the game or stop complaining.
Jayden Johnson
Even micro and macro economics wont teach you how to properly handle your finances.
