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Comment by aphextron | Hacker News Reader

>The answer traditionally has been "take out $40-200k in student loans," but does anyone realize how terrifying that can be for someone making minimum wage? Imagine having to risk 4x your current salary based on the promise you'll get a job, except you're learning that for a lot of people it isn't working as advertised. It's an insane risk and/or sacrifice we require to just survive.

This is an extremely privileged statement. Those homeless community college students would jump at the opportunity to take out $20,000 in student loans to get through their studies. The problem is they have no credit and come from a background where getting someone to cosign for your loans is a nonstarter. That leaves a paltry $5k/yr in Pell grant money for living expenses, and hoping your subsidized Stafford loan (if you're even eligible) covers all of tuition/fees/books.

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I'll add in why I dropped out of college (current software engineer making six figures).

My dad made just enough money to get us past the point where Pell grants were denied because of my Dad's income. Unfortunately, my family still couldn't afford it and I was exceptionally weary of taking out 150k in student loans. The most they could afford to offer me was $200/month in rent. After a semester, I just dropped out and got a job at a local ISP as a software engineer.

Would I have went to school? Absolutely, but I couldn't afford it. As a person with Aspergers, it would have also been exceptionally hard for me to work /and/ attend school full-time. I tried that and it didn't work out.

I still have dreams of getting a doctorate. I love school and I love learning. I love being in class and attending lectures. Maybe when I can afford it and do just that, I'll do it.

As a person who graduated three years ago, the education system (even to an upper-lower/lower-middle class kid) is absolutely disheartening and dream crushing. Intellectuals don't speak of social darwinism, but their organizations, fiscally and structurally, still do. I will always feel inadequate for never having achieved a degree that all my friends will soon or now have.

I learned to only rely on myself, though. It's turned me into a very mature and responsible 21 year old. It still feels like I have no idea what I'm doing, but I'm working on it.

Your post is informative, thanks for taking the time to write it. Minor nit: It would have been better if you dropped the aggressive opening sentence, and let your well-written depiction of the facts stand alone, especially as it seems the other poster was operating in good faith. FSM knows the public square is filled with enough unconstructive and divisive language these days.

>FSM knows the public square is filled with enough unconstructive and divisive language these days.

Agreed. It was an emotional response to a subject of personal issue.

I'm curious - I haven't met many people who were unable to obtain any type of student loan. Was that the case for you?

I was denied student loans unless my parents cosigned.

Even federal student loans? I thought most of them don't require a cosigner

IIRC most require a complimentary loan application from parents for PLUS loans... or something like that, at least it used to be so.

It's not a question of obtaining any loan. It's a question of obtaining enough loans.

And at a proper rate. Having a credit cosigner to get you that 4% loan can mean the difference between spending a lifetime paying interest, and paying down your principal in 10 years.

It's not just obtaining the loans but the terms. I know someone who's immediate family doesn't have great credit and/or great jobs. They became a software engineer but had something like an 8.5% interest rate. He worked out of San Diego and hopped on a job in Atlanta because the salary and cost of living was better for paying off the high interest loan.

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