Things they don't tell you when you take out a student loan:
A $23,000 loan will end up accruing over $38,000 in interest over the 5 years of grace period, and the subsequent however-many-years it takes to pay it off little-by-little. So when all is said and done, the loan ends up being over $60,000.
For one year.
Add to that the $18,000, which is now up to $21,000 after one year, and will eventually top off at $45,000 when all is said and done.
So I'm already in debt over $100,000.
And I'm not going to an Ivy League school. Or a Sister School. Or even a private university. I am at a Florida state university. One of the 10 least expensive public universities in the nation (based on a ranking by MSN, in-state tuition). I'm at a school where students of my American History class don't know what a tariff is, can't tell you what countries are considered "Western", and couldn't recognize Theodore Roosevelt from a photograph.
In what realm is a public university education worth $200,000?
I don't know how kids at Northwestern, USC, or any East Coast Schools do it. Oh, perhaps their parents care about education and actually had money set aside. (In a related note: my mother suggested I drop out of school tonight. And she wasn't joking.)
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The only good thing? Next year and the subsequent year (or two more...eep) I'll be getting in-state tuition. THANK GOD!! So maybe my education will only cost me $115,000-$130,000.
I hate money. And yet I can't get enough. Bugger.