She was 17 or maybe 18.
I would make my own college decisions slightly differently in retrospect, so I can't put all the blame on a 17 year old. She probably had lots of different advice, some of it contradictory, incomplete or optimistic.
I would make my own college decisions slightly differently in retrospect, so I can't put all the blame on a 17 year old. She probably had lots of different advice, some of it contradictory, incomplete or optimistic.
I certainly wasn't educated on the long term consequences of debt when I was that age and I was relatively well off. We are, after all, discussing education. So the person who is striving for an education is being criticized for not being financially educated enough from the start?
I know that somebody is going to get on my case for defending ignorance. But maybe we shouldn't have systems in place that allow millions of people to make the same wrong decision? Fault can lie on both sides.
Maybe the difference here is that she chose to pay for a masters, which is a graduate degree. I think the personal responsibility argument carries more weight at that point.
The real issue is that schools are too expensive. It shouldn't be a mistake that takes a lifetime to pay back if you pursue a degree that "the marketplace" doesn't reward with a six- or seven-figure salary.
Oh there's plenty of blame to go around for sure.
The banks, the schools, the government. Even the businesses supplying the job market with opportunities that over emphasize post secondary.
But at 17 or 18 you're not completely blameless either. You know there are consequences for the decisions you make and that you are ultimately responsible for your own actions. This is taught from grade school.
We don't give large loans to teenagers for any other reason.
Meanwhile teachers, parents, older students, friends and so on say "follow your heart" and it will all work out.
As a young adult? Let's see...
Drinking and driving, unprotected premarital sex, drug use and abuse...there are plenty. These are all decisions that a 17 or 18 year old has to make very regularly and the wrong decision can be very harmful.
To your point though, the decision around this massive student loan racket is the only one I can think of that was / is actively encouraged by so many parents and educators. Like I said, there's plenty of blame to go around. But that doesn't absolve the 17 or 18 year old of blame.