[quote=Allan from Fallbrook] . . . With over a trillion dollars in outstanding student loans, something has to give. These debts are not dischargeable through BK and have to be exerting pressure in other areas, like retarding the ability of those in their 20s and 30s from purchasing a starter home.[/quote]
I’m sure those with large student-loan balances (of ANY age) are having issues with being able to access credit, whether to purchase a home, refinance, buy a vehicle, etc. I have extensively counseled my kids to NEVER take out student loans or fill out any application for a CC while in college, whether those apps were distributed on campus or not.
I’ve come to the conclusion over the last six months or so that the best college education can probably be found at smaller four-year colleges in which each student has an academic counselor chained to their ankle (and iphone, etc) and the typical class sizes are under 25 students.
When a student is paying big bucks to be “just a number” at a campus of a large public or private university system (such as UC and CSU), so many details of their class selection and ability to obtain needed classes to graduate can easily fall through the cracks. Especially for the students who have to work part-time jobs to help with their living expenses and so have a pretty “hectic” life. The mistakes made by students attending these huge campuses with Gen Ed class sizes of 500 or more and program major classes of 300 or more cannot be fixed without a lot more time and money invested.
That seems to be the way the CSU/UC’s like it now. They seem to want a student to be held “hostage” to obtain their undergrad degree because they collect so much more money from the student while they are taking 1-2 classes to finish in their 5th year and beyond.
Thus, even if a “liberal arts” college (with bus/eng and other major programs of study avail), the public or private college of <5000 students is a better deal in the long run if the institution can reliably crank out 350-400 graduates per academic year in all of the programs it offers, IMHO.
Of course, this type of college wouldn't be sought by Allan's athletic-scholarship hopefuls :=]
