Making A Change

 

Making a change

After four (plus) years of hard work, study, and learning, college graduates are ready to take on the world and begin their careers. However, these university graduates face obstacles right after graduation. After years of study and graduation, a career should be ready for them, but this is not always the case. College graduates struggle to find careers after college, making it increasingly difficult to pay off student loans as well as start their lives. Student loans are crippling college graduates and making it incredibly difficult to afford anything. Children have always been told in their childhood that without a university education there will be no stable job for them in the world, a career will allow them to pay all the bills and support the family. Growing up, these kids worked incredibly hard in school and did extracurricular activities so they could get scholarships and grants to pay for part of their schooling. While they may have received scholarships, college tuition has skyrocketed so they had to take out student loans. Almost double the amount they withdrew due to interest. Now, this poses a huge problem for students who are just starting their careers and starting to take care of themselves. On average, forty-four million students take out loans to pay for tuition, and for the average year of 2016, the debt for college graduates alone is $1.2 trillion. A research study was conducted that surveyed college students and generated data on what student loans they took out and how many. The study showed that 30.5 million students took out direct loans totaling $911.6 billion, just as 16.8 million college graduates took out an FFEL loan, which added up to $342.6 billion, so Perkins loans totaled $8.0 billion. borrows from 2.7 million people (Josuweit, Andy). Now, that doesn't seem like a lot on average compared to the number of kids that go to college, but that amount doubles before it's paid off because of the 11.1% delinquency rate. It is nearly impossible for the average college graduate to pay off their student loans in a short amount of time, which creates many challenges when it comes to starting a career and taking care of yourself. The research found that when comparing four-year universities and private colleges, as well as community colleges, student loan debt was much more significant at four-year colleges than at community colleges. They also found that more student loans were made to students attending public four-year universities rather than private universities. The research also found that students who received grants were likely to borrow more money than other students. Forty percent of the $1.2 trillion collected in student loans was used to finance graduate and professional degrees. All of this statistical information showed that of the forty-four million students who take out student loans to finance their tuition, most of them attend four-year public colleges and rely on the middle to lower classes. Just because these people fall into the middle and lower class doesn't mean they should pay for it when it comes to going to college and pursuing a better career. Student loan debt is an issue that needs some attention and a solution to this crippling problem. The topic of student loan debt for college students is something that hasn't been talked about much in recent years. Attention was paid to this issue when the presidential election took place and Bernard Sanders (also known as Bernie Sanders) began suggesting on a forum that college should be free to avoid student loan debt. Soon after this proposal was announced, the actual statistics came out about the problem. Student loan debt has nearly doubled in recent years due to increased tuition costs, making it nearly impossible for the average student not to take out student loans. The interest rate on the loans was increased, causing the amount to double before she even got a chance to start paying it back. Sanders also raised the idea that a college degree is roughly equivalent to what a high school diploma used to be. Arguing that a student should not be forced to pay for an education they should have received in previous years of schooling. Many solutions have been proposed to eliminate the problem of student loan debt. Current President Barack Obama has highlighted solutions such as student loan forgiveness, which allows college graduates to apply for problem loan forgiveness, erasing their remaining debt. The requirement for this is that the college graduate must be employed by the government or a non-profit organization, plus they must have made at least 120 monthly payments on a qualifying installment plan while working full-time for a current employer. However, this solution also created some problems, for example, the student loan forgiveness program would not eliminate student loan debt, it would only slightly reduce the burden. While it brings some positives, the solution would end up costing taxpayers a whopping $3.5 billion to offset student loans. This notion of taxpayers paying out of pocket has created a huge problem in this topic. Another proposed solution was more local. Companies allowed recent college graduates who started their careers with their companies right after graduation to offer contracts to pay off their debts. College graduates who sign contracts with companies allow the companies to pay off their student loan debts if the students work for them in return for some time. Many medical students find themselves signing ten-year contracts with the company to pay off their medical school debt. While this solution may seem like these students are selling their souls, each student has the final decision to accept the offer or not.