New York May Offer Free Tuition Soon

[sanantone]

It might be true that the average student loan is $7K but that is including all the students on PELL and other financial aid/scholarships. Not everyone is lucky enough to get that level of financial support! And I know many that do that don't get the academic supports they need as first generation college students that drop out because the colleges only care about getting them admitted, not ensuring they make it to graduation!  I know because I've seen it first hand Yet they'll whine about losing students and their stats, and play dumb about why so many students don't make it and drop out. .  PS- I never said that business, education or psychology degrees were hard to find. I was stating the exact opposite. I was using those as examples, because you can find them practically at ever college!!!   PS2- It still doesn't make any sense that student loan rates are higher than auto loans and mortgage rates!!!

I misread the majors part. 

How much your auto and home loan interest rates are depends on your credit. When I was younger and didn't have a cosigner, I think I had an 18% interest rate on an auto loan.

We'll have to agree to disagree on the student loan rates plus the fact that not all students can actually get financial aid assistance as well as not end up in debt after doing all they can to get a bachelor degree even at state college campuses....

Only a third of college students receive the Pell Grant. 

https://trends.collegeboard.org/student-...-over-time

Still, it is relatively rare for anyone to go $100k in debt for an undergraduate degree. I'm talking about stats rather than anecdotes. The media has given so much attention to students going $100k in debt, people erroneously believe this is the norm. People who go $100k in debt for undergraduate degrees are outliers. A majority of undergraduate students won't even go $50k in debt.  

https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/upl...lances.pdf

If you live in NYS and your middle class and don't get financial aid, sorry to say, but yes, you will end up in debt for undergrad degrees from public colleges. You don't have to believe me - But I can tell you everyone I work with who's kids are attending public NYS colleges, they are in debt for at least $50K if not more and none of them recieved financial aid because both parents were working so they didn't qualify for grants and such. 

You are set on blaming people for going into debt to get a college education. I think that students should get the same low rates for college loans that people get for mortgages and auto loans during the same periods; especially if they are having to pay for it full rate without any discounts from federal/state/private financial aid grants. They are being put at a disadvantage for trying to be productive members of society. I'm for helping people pull them self up but the middle class families seem to get stuck paying while wealthy and the lower middle class and poor reap economic benefits.  You can only squeeze the middle class so far before it starts to implode...

Oh, I believe they go into debt; I just don't believe that many New Yorkers go anywhere near $100k in debt. The average in-state yearly tuition is around $9k nationally. Students can usually expect to pay $10-15k for room and board. Yet, most undergraduate students do not go $80k-100k in debt even though two-thirds of students don't qualify for the Pell Grant. 

I think it's reasonable to go $30k in debt. It's completely avoidable to go $100k in debt. There are so many options. Just because you're in college doesn't mean that you can't expect to eat and have a place to live. Your need to live still remains. You can get a part-time job, participate in a work study program, and/or live with a roommate in an off-campus apartment. Many students don't move away because they have to; they move away because they want to. There is nothing wrong with commuting, but so many kids want to waste money on the "full college experience."