Consumerist: While college tuitions and student loan debt has skyrocketed, a number of institutions — especially for-profit schools — have been criticized for failing to provide sufficient education and guidance to students who are then stuck without jobs and without the ability to pay back student loans. Starting Monday morning, the Dept. of Education will begin hearing feedback on a recently drafted regulation that would hold schools accountable for the performance of their students in the real world.
5 comments:
I'm glad that something is being done about the unemployment after college and the student debt. I am paying for my tuition by my own money and a grant this year with gov't student loans to fill in the difference. The loans are taken out by me, not my mother, so I will have all that maximum loans to pay back after four years. Sure there are plenty of loop holes, like any legislative piece, and without a doubt many colleges will test them and the boundaries to get out of giving financial aid to more students.
There is a lot of pressure now on high school seniors to go to a college that has a good post-graduation employment rate, so it may work out better for colleges if they do have a higher employment rate because more students will be likely to enroll there. We all chose CMU for the top notch program and the fantastic opportunities that we can get during and after our time here. Don't act like those weren't factors in your decision.
This is absolutely ridiculous. When are people going to start taking responsibility for their own decisions and their own lives? If you choose to go to a specific school, don't do everything in your power to get the most out of your education, and then graduate without a job, that's not the university's fault. When a student makes a decision to go to a school, it's because the school has the right program and other good qualities. It is then the student's responsibility to do everything they can to make sure they are employable when they graduate. Penalizing schools because their graduates aren't employed is like a customer with a peanut allergy suing a company because they ate a bag of peanuts. When is this generation going to realize that the world isn't going to hand them everything, that the government isn't responsible for your success? If you want to be successful, then take control of your life, and do everything you possibly can to reach that goal. You can't achieve a goal if you don't work for it.
So, I think this legislation is well-intentioned but it feels very reactive to me, like in order to make the public feel like the DOE is addressing its concerns, they're finding a scapegoat in the form of graduates' debt-income ratio. I've done a little bit of research about the issues affecting tuition raises (http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ffp0005s.pdf) and am starting to question how successful the federal student loan program really is. Since so many students qualify for federal aid, particularly loans, the school can raise its tuition without necessarily increasing the out of pocket costs to students' families directly, in favor of delayed payback.
I do still think that many high school students simply don't understand what taking on 5-6 figures of debt will do to their futures, particularly with tons of websites like the College Board saying things like "don't worry about the sticker price" etc. There is a happy medium between holding institutions directly responsible for the employability of their graduates and convincing 17 year olds that it's advisable to take out $200,000 in loans for a BA in sociology. I just think, as with many issues, a level of thought and care needs to be given to this that we as a society seem unwilling or unable to give.
First off, it's ridiculous in the first place that student loans are so high, so complicated, and so problematic. This really shouldn't have to be an issue in the first place. But to the point, I'm not sure if this legislation will affect much at all. It seems to me like the issue stems more from the fact that students really don't understand loans and how it all works after graduation…and what they are getting into in the first place. I think where it would really help everyone is to have courses on loan management, on gaining employment after graduation, etc. I remember when I graduated from undergrad we had one brief meeting about what was going to be happening with our loans and how we should handle things. We were handed a folder with all of our financial information and told to contact our advisor with questions. I remember coming out of the meeting with a vague understanding of what needed to happen and what I was responsible for…better than nothing! Where things really get crazy is just in the sheer confusing nature of student loans. Getting them, having them, paying them back, taking out too much, taking out too little. Sometimes you have school loans from so many different places that keeping track of them is incredibly frustrating. You can consolidate, but often times that makes it much more expensive in the long run. My suggestion -- educate students better about loans: what they are, how they work, what your job is as a holder of loans. Make student loans more streamline and easy to keep track of, without making it more expensive.
There are many programs at many schools that charge an obscene amount of money to get a degree that will not buy you anything in the real world. I think that we as a nation have gotten to the point where we have people going to college who have no need, desire or skills that will help them be successful in college. People need to remove the stigma of not having a college degree from our collective consciousness because many of these people who are having trouble after college paying off student debt should have just gotten a job instead of a degree. I know many people with MFA's who had to take jobs in unrelated fields because they could not find work. We are overproducing people in theatre and live entertainment because many colleges have programs that offer little training or help with contacts but can talk a good game. I taught at one such college and that place should have been shut down because the faculty had no contacts and little professional experience and the facilities were insufficient to support the program. I will say that I really do agree with Jess that people should take responsibility but certain colleges need to check their moral compass about how they sell their program because they are as bad as predatory lenders. They sell themselves and trick people and it is not OK
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