[quote=SK in CV][quote=bearishgurl]
I suppose there are people who DO pay them off in a timely manner but I don’t know any. Everyone I ever knew who has them have taken one or more deferrals and is paying only the minimum monthly payments on them.
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Obviously, you don’t know everyone, only the deadbeats. The Cal State system universities mostly have default rates between 5 and 10%, with only one as high as 10%, and a couple, like SDSU, below 5%. The UC’s are better. Only one has a default rate of 5%, the rest are lower.[/quote]
SK, in these state systems, I only know ex-students who have taken deferments and consolidated their student loans. In these cases, they just borrowed too much due to borrowing for “living expenses,” in addition to fees and books. The fees on UC and CSU did not begin escalating out of control until the ’06/07 school year. Substantial CSU fee hikes have occurred nearly every semester since then and also in the UC system, although not as pronounced.
The people I have known who defaulted on their student loans did so on loans to attend “for-profit-diploma-mills,” mostly for grad school. In all cases, these grad schools (some brick-and-mortar) were private. In some cases, the SL debtor waited far too long to decide what they wanted to be/do when they grew up. I stand by my assertion that it is pure folly for one to begin taking on educational debt to get trained, credentialed or certified for ANY occupation when already over the age of 45. Even if these candidates graduate and pass all required state exams, they will very likely never make enough in their lifetimes to pay off their student loans, and secondarily, compensate themselves for their effort and lost income in their “prime” working years while a student in the program. This is due to rampant age-discrimination in hiring in the US. Since age-discrimination in hiring remains difficult to prove in a court of law, US companies and even governments will continue to get away with it for the foreseeable future.
As you are probably aware, the reality is that employers today couldn’t give a r@t’s @ss about how much “experience” a job candidate has, even if it is all in the the “correct” field for the job opening they have. They want young employees (and all the drama and maintenance that ensues with having them on board).
Older employees, even if they’re in great health, have great attendance and show up on time to work every day, keep their heads down and mind their own biz are seen by employers (of less than 50 employees) as dinosaurs, which, if in the mix, cause their overall company health premiums to spike.
