Untenable Student Loan Loads

I figured the costs before I went to college, but coming from a wealthier family (we were never poor, my dad made sure we lived within our means, but a family of 6 as a single parent meant we were by no means rich) I couldn't get any Federal loans, having a green card also added an extra step on top of it in that by getting a student loan you have to sign up for the Selective Service System which my country can consider another countries army thereby possibly having me lose my citizenship.

I took out three student loans (3 years, 3 semesters each year) to cover all of my costs, tuition, housing, books, living expenses, and when I graduated I had 120k in student loans. This is for a software engineering degree.

I have so far paid off about 40k (mostly through money I got from my grandparents for graduating), leaving me still to pay 80k. That is a lot of money, finding a job wasn't easy either, the job I am working at now is certainly not paying a whole lot (it's below the 50k mentioned in the article as what people are earning with a bachelor degree, but I am at a startup and I love the atmosphere ...), so I am going to be spending a lot of time paying off all of my student loans.

So maybe I had the deck stacked against my favour, maybe if I had done better in high school I could have gotten more scholarships and the like (many of which BTW, as I found out, do not apply to foreign nationals/green card holders). I chose a degree in which I will eventually be making a lot of money, but for now I definitely feel like that debt is looming over me, it is holding me back from doing what I want to do (get a newer car, my beater is really on its last legs), find a place to live on my own rather than with 4 room mates.

It hasn't given me the freedom yet to purchase new tools and equipment for my woodworking hobby. I can't afford to go on a vacation to just take some time off, because I need the money I am making to pay off my loans. I am currently paying just over $700 per month for my student loans, that's a lot of money, especially compared to what I have left over after paying bills (water, electricity, gas, Internet) and rent.

So yes, I know what I got into, I knew it was going to be hard, what I wasn't expecting was that it was so hard to find a job mainly because the IT sector was hit so hard with the recession thereby causing a flood of engineers to the market, and a fresh out of school kid getting a lesser chance to find a position.

I should have done what my brothers and sister did, and that is go back to Europe and get a free education courtesy of the governemnt.

A lot of people don't seem to be making that same choice. According to the article, we're already talking about debt forgiveness. There won't be a correction in the system until consumers choose the affordable options. You don't need to spend $50k/year to get a great education.