• bean@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    As someone who was bright-eyed and bushy tailed when I started college, I was not expecting that being a student was a constant bleed of money.

    The college partnered with some student loan vendor? and that vendor issued only a debit card which only worked on campus at specific ATMs. There was no apps for this shit. There was no bank withdrawal. Is was only the card and the ATM. They charged a fee for every use of it. So when I need to get that tuition money, I had to pay to get my money. It limits at 300$ so you’d have to repeatedly get charged to take multiple sums out. Tuition was exorbitant too. Didn’t include cafeteria or anything else. Books also out of pocket and 3-4 new ones each semester. We were also forced to pay ‘health fees’ for access to the newly built rec center, which you paid whether you ever stepped foot there or not.

    Look it’s one thing to have a ‘way about things’ but by this point it was more like an excuse to fleece us for everything we had and more.

    After 2.5 years of it I finally had to get a job on top of everything just to afford to be there. The job then took most of my time and it was not easy working around the school schedule. I finally had to quit school. What did I do? I stayed in my job because it was the only income source I had as a young person without a college degree and at least I was literally getting working experience.

    Tell me, who benefited here? You can argue it was me, but I have no degree in my hand. I have now almost 20,000$ on top of my original amount (40k) due to interest. I’ve always struggled to make ends meet and I’m essentially trapped with this debt. Is this really fair? I didn’t know the true consequence of these loans adding up. It was only after I got so far and saw how big a problem was growing that I had to bail. There was no way I could afford it. I was a kid, I was told I had to go to college and I had no choices in life unless I did that. So much pressure growing up.

  • AutistoMephisto@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Reminder that student loans, like mortgages, are rolled up into an investment vehicle called the SLABS, or Student Loan Asset Backed Securities. Student Loan Forgiveness would tank the value of the SLABS, and I guarantee you our elected officials have money tied up in them. Since a student loan can’t be discharged through bankruptcy, it’s typically a very safe investment.

    • argarath@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      It is absolutely HORRIBLE and immortal to have an investment that gains money of others being in debt. That is SO fucked up

      • prole@sh.itjust.works
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        10 months ago

        Welcome to capitalism.

        Inb4 all the MBA nerds come to chime in about why making money off of someone else’s failure is a good thing…

  • andros_rex@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    I took out my student loans to get a teaching degree. I worked full time during school, but tuition at my public university was 10k$/year when I was making $16k. My state has effectively made it illegal to be transgender in a public school, so despite a devastating shortage in my area of expertise, I can no longer work in the career I took the loans out for. My option is now to take out more student loans to pay for a masters degree and hope that I’ll be able to save up enough to move out of state, because I want to do the thing that I love to do and am good at. I will be a debt slave for the rest of my life.

    • EssentialCoffee@midwest.social
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      10 months ago

      You should look trying to move to a state before taking the loans. Plenty of states need teachers and are willing to pay for you to get your master’s as part of retaining you.

      • andros_rex@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        The state that just hired the LibsOfTikTok person to evaluate school materials… and is going after a principal’s license for dressing in drag on the weekends. Imma be vague because my life sucks enough without getting Chaya involved…

  • Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Real talk - How will not paying convince conservatives to be for student debt forgiveness? They’re the ones blocking loan forgiveness, and this is a demographic of people that does lean toward them, so why would they listen?

    IMHO, showing up to vote is what would actually put the fear of god into these politicians. Not paying a loan will totally fuck up your ability to rent, get a credit card, get reasonable car insurance, and even get a job. Bad credit is no joke.

  • dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    10 months ago

    I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: if you need your citizens to have a post-secondary education to keep your country humming along, MAKE IT AS EASY AS POSSIBLE FOR PEOPLE TO GET THE EDUCATION AND NOT BE BURDENED WITH BULLSHIT DEBT. FREE COLLEGE. FREE UNIVERSITY. FREE TRADES SCHOOL.

    • TechAnon@lemm.ee
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      10 months ago

      It’s already free. Everything is on the Internet. We need employers to step up and put in their own tests, questions, etc instead of relying on degrees to create a pool of potential employees. Some places already do this.

      • prole@sh.itjust.works
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        10 months ago

        We need employers to step up and put in their own tests, questions, etc instead of relying on degrees

        Oh yeah, let’s put control of post-secondary education into the hands of corporations. What could possibly go wrong?

        • TechAnon@lemm.ee
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          10 months ago

          This doesn’t put education into the hands of corporations. It’s here already… on the internet. You can watch entire Standford or MIT courses for nothing right now.

            • TechAnon@lemm.ee
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              10 months ago

              I learned new programming languages online using courses like those. I use them fairly consistently at work. I also went to a 4 year university prior to that. Learning online was both cheaper and faster. Also, a few university classes I took were 100% online. No difference except for cost.

              I test those that I hire now with real-world problems - all of which have college degrees due to company policy to limit which resumes I can see based on requirements. There’s a huge difference between these people - some don’t know anything and some are fairly well-versed. This standard education thing isn’t working.

              • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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                10 months ago

                Online lectures are a tool you can use to educate yourself; the lectures aren’t educating you.

                Education is an action done by a human being.

                • TechAnon@lemm.ee
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                  10 months ago

                  If that’s your definition then it’s the same as college. Most courses I took had 200-300 students in a large auditorium where we just sat there a listened to the professor, took notes, read the book (that cost $300) and took a few tests. I also took a few online courses in obtaining my degree. Educating myself later was faster and more efficient.

  • _number8_@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    hard af.

    can’t you all clown on them in the facebook comments? AKSCHUILLY the government will always win yeah no shit thanks