# American college debt - those who fail **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 1, 2006, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-college-debt-those-who-fail/354931 "2006-05-01T10:32:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harriet_the_Spry)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2006, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-college-debt-those-who-fail/354931/21 "2006-05-01T20:35:57Z")
anu-la-1979, sorry, didn’t mean to imply your sister was not smart. I, however, didn’t hang out with that type of premed student. Yes, I do know how hard it is to get in, many of my friends tried repeatedly, some eventually succeeding. I’m not sure her living expenses are fair to count in your analysis, though. It sounds like she is living in a high-cost area because of her marriage, not just because of school. ---
**Author:** ![anu-la1979](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/47e85d/32.png) [@anu-la1979](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anu-la1979)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2006, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-college-debt-those-who-fail/354931/22 "2006-05-01T22:01:23Z")
I was answering your presumption that 250K is what people rack up over 8 years worth of education. It’s not. If you attend a private medical university you will almost certainly rack up 120-150K in tuition ALONE. If you go elect to go to school out of the boonies, you rack up another hefty sum in living costs. Even if she had gone out to the boonies, that’s what? 50K less? Did you read the cite I provided for Columbia Medical School? Calculate the tuition alone (outside the living expenses). My point about her marriage was not about the cost of living but about the larger point that one must be an idiot to rack up such debt or there are ways to get out of said debt. Sure there are, but they’re not palatable. It usually requires you to commit to a post-graduate assignment in a field you may not like, or in an isolated/rural/downtrodden inner city area practicing in a field you may not want to go into long-term. Finally, if you read the initial thread you might have seen that I (among other people) said that when they’re in this situation, their earning potential is so high that many really don’t give a crap about their debt. My sister isn’t concerned at all about the debt, nor does she complain about it. Why should she be? She’s looking at 300K starting salaries in her field. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2006, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-college-debt-those-who-fail/354931/23 "2006-05-01T22:30:21Z")
[QUOTE=Quartz] As I understand it - and correct me if I’m wrong - with a normal debt of too great a degree, you can declare bankrupcy and move on, but you can’t do this with a student debt, so how does someone move on in this case? Can you enlist and have the debt written off? Can you ‘dodge’ them for a certain length of time? Or do you just have to knuckle under? [/QUOTE] Knuckle under. There are ways to “dodge” the debt (get it removed or forgiven), but most of those require the degree. Also, there is a strange point where a person can make too much to qualify for many of the repayment programs, but owe so much that they really need them. ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2006, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-college-debt-those-who-fail/354931/24 "2006-05-01T22:39:12Z")
[QUOTE=Harriet the Spry] In my experience with many college pre-med friends, that would be a typical profile of someone who was getting a lot of cues all along that they weren’t really good at this, but was buying their way to the next level. [/QUOTE] Isn’t that the typical definition of every single college student in the world, “buying their way to the next level”? ---
**Author:** ![Mrs\_O\_Malley\_s\_Cow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Mrs\_O\_Malley\_s\_Cow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mrs_O_Malley_s_Cow)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-college-debt-those-who-fail/354931/25 "2006-05-02T07:17:14Z")
[QUOTE=Dangerosa] I go to college with a number of people who shouldn’t BE in college, and I do feel for them. Some high school counselor convinced them college was accessible, and now they are there, working their butts off, and not cutting it (at a school that is a step up from Community College, which is a step down from your average High School honors class). Its hard to sympathize when the pleas come from someone who still has the plastic on their textbook three weeks out from the end of the semester, and has left each class at break (night school) and who apparently thought paying the bill entitles them to a C. (Extreme, but happens). I don’t even have a lot of sympathy from the people who didn’t read the material before the lecture so they could ask informed questions. [/QUOTE] I remember once sitting in the student union eating a sandwich before going to the library to do research and write four papers at the same time when I heard some tour leader telling a bunch of students that college really wasn’t all about the books. There was just so much more. I wanted to scream over “Hey, what’s your GPA. I bet your profs just love you.” I have no sympathy for slackers. I do have sympathy for someone who really busts their ass and does well or at least passes. But at least they are trying. (I remember a little French class that I got a C in. I really did try but the final just screwed me. My heart beats fast just thinking about it. I have no one to blame but myself\>) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-college-debt-those-who-fail/354931.md?page=1)