What is the general rule of thumb for how much student loans you should take out?

That isn't necessarily correct. Just don't go in unless you know exactly what you want, and are sure that college will help you achieve that. I went in for law enforcement, and you make significantly more per year in my field if you have a degree. When I started working, my starting salary was more than people's who had been working in the same position for 10 years, just because of a stupid $4,000 piece of paper. It payed itself off in less than six months.

One I've heard is that the amount you take out should be worth no more than 2-3 years of what your starting salary would be. So for stem, let's say you're at $60k starting, you can take out up to $180k in loans and be okay. Note that "okay" != great, so try to reduce that number and get as many scholarships as you can. 2 years of cheap community college and then transfer to a proper uni for 2-3 years to get your Bachelors seems to be the best route.

Take as much as you can out and put into cryptos you fucking noob. You want to be a wage cuck after you graduate from that school?

as much as possible. it's low interest rate

>I don't want to move to Europe.
Why though? Is the US really that worth it to you that you deliberately put yourself in crippling debt for like a decade after you finish studying, meaning you have less choice in what work you do, because you have to keep working at all costs, instead of having infinite possibilities after graduating and being able to experiment like work for a small startup or even start your own, go travel the world or whatever you want...

I never understood that about americans... I get patriotism and all that but if your countries university system is this fucked, do you really want to be a patriot?

>mfw I took my disbursements and rolled them into investments a few years ago and have 10-20x gains on that original amount

My friends and family are here.
I may have a rando cousin in france or what not. But I don't want to leave everyone here

Good point about interest rates. The Fed is slated to do a few more increases in 2018, so get em while they're good!

Ignore the eurocucks, stay in the US, and use your CS/SE degree to work for defense contractors. Shit is so cash.

I live in a blessed country and got to go to uni for free, still took out student loans anyway..

Low interest plus I don't need to start making payments until I'm at a certain income and even then it's very little per year.

unironically this.

Unless you're in medicine you'd be better off learning most of the things off the internet for free.

>free college
>student loans
wat

I get that but its not like its forever. And after your bachelors you can reevaluate if its worth doing your masters back in the US, which would reduce the amount of debt you have by a lot compared to doing everything there.
A lot of people are doing this and I know so many people here from all over the world that left everything behind and came here to study. I dont think Ive met a single one who regretted the decision, but its obviously a hard one.

I would seriously emplore you to at least consider doing it. Try to find as much information on different universities in europe that offer compsci and are public and then decide what to do.

>So user, what qualifications do you have to work at our company?
I watched some TEDtalks and did a few Khan academy lessons

If OP wants to do CS/SE, it's a lot harder to break into the industry with no experience or education. If he knows somewhere that can hire him and get a couple years of experience under his belt, then maybe, but most entry-level positions want a Bachelors at minimum.

There is a program called Bafög here in germany where a student whose parents earn below a certain amount per year is granted access to a free loan of which he only has to pay back at most half the amount he took out.
There is a limit that depends on your situation and the maximum you can get is something like 600 euro per month, which is just about enough to live a frugal lifestyle but you can obviously also work on the side and make extra cash.

Its a decent system of making sure that people from poor backgrounds have the same access to university as rich ones.
Obviously since you only have to pay back a part of it, its a nobrainer to accept it and since its without interest, youre not crushed with debilitating debt the second you leave uni...

That's where having a portfolio of projects that you can show off comes in. Personal projects not only demonstrate ability but also passion. I know people that have hired off of projects alone. That said, it's no substitute for a formal education. Online courses generally teach how to be a code monkey in a particular language, not how to be a proper software engineer.

Biggest issue is that they often don't get into the advanced math it takes to understand these fields thoroughly.

I'm 60k in debt and every gain I make on cryptos goes into paying it off. Its a little heartbreaking but one day soon I will be free of these shackles

What did you major in?

as someone who regularly interviews people in IT, I don't usually even read education part. All that matters is skill that you can immediately demonstrate.

Few 100$ Coursera certificates and some personal project will probably get you a job faster that a degree with a clean slate.

Exactly, and they're not mutually exclusive either. You can get your degree where you learn a lot of the core stuff (math, architecture, software design lifecycle, theory behind computation) and also take the free online courses to expand your breadth of languages and frameworks.

Ideally you wouldn't have a degree with a clean slate though - you'd also have personal projects or internship experience. It probably also depends on the company and industry - some, as you said, only look at your skill set, but others will weigh education pretty heavily (and not only that you have a degree, but where you got it and your GPA).

Plus, going to a university gives you a large network of peers, professors, and alum that will help you a lot. The actual education is only a part of the value. And sure, you're paying more for that premium, but you'll also generally have a higher return on that investment.

I'm in community college right now where a semesters tuition is 2 weeks of part time work. But I know lots of people at 4 year unis. Biggest issue I've run into with people wanting to study comp sci is that they can't do the math or think it's all game design

>missing out the best experience of your lifetime
k

Yup, I was a CS TA at my uni for three years, and I've seen that too. It definitely takes a certain type of mind to do CS - some people have an intuition for it, and others take the whole semester before they even start getting the hang of it.

The worst part is when you're at an expensive school and you see someone come in as a STEM major and switch to something like communications. They're not only going to end up paying more (because not all of their courses will transfer to their new degree, so they effectively have to re-do a year or two), but they are going to exit with an even lower return than they expected.

Kudos for starting with community college - it's hella cheap compared to a university, and honestly, your $300 English class will be just as good (and relevant) as my $3k English class. Even if only half of your credits transfer (which for gen eds, why wouldn't they?), you're still getting a much better deal overall.

Computer Science. But I'm a brainlet and cant code. I work in finance now.

>college is the best experience of your lifetime
k

> Plus, going to a university gives you a large network of peers, professors, and alum that will help you a lot.
that I totally agree with

plus it's probably your last chance to lose virginity if you're autistic

Max out your subsidized loans and put them in crypto :)

if college is the best experience in your life omg...
Thats like being the old guy in a trailer dreaming of his high school foot ball days

If you're a liberal arts major your quality of life peaks in college and suddenly drops after graduation.
If you're a stem major your quality of life is at its lowest during college and suddenly peaks after.

Community college first then transfer to a cheap state school keep loans minimal because when you are paying 500 dollars a month in student loans that will suck