College Loans: Is Borrowing Worth It?
Posted on Fri, 03/16/2012 - 18:32
Today's guest post is from Jon Boeckenstedt, vice president for Enrollment Policy & Planning at DePaul University, who has a gift for cutting to the chase whether he's writing about testing, college tours, or tuition. Here is his take on the value of a college degree and how a student may want to think about borrowing to obtain that education:
It has long been believed that attending college paid back financially and with a better quality of life in general.
Then we had a little economic calamity in this country, and people aren’t so sure any more.
Some people think we’re in the middle of “A Perfect Storm,” where several important (negative) things are happening at the same time, thus creating a crisis: College tuition keeps increasing, and often increasing faster than inflation; federal aid keeps shrinking, causing student debt to grow dramatically; and the jobs recent graduates need to pay back student debt are growing scarcer. On top of that, problems like unemployment are even greater for people who don’t have a college degree.