The American Nightmare
Go to high school, go to college, get married, buy a house with a white picket fence, and have 2.5 kids. This is the American Dream. Education! Go to high school, college and in the past decade go to graduate school, and the possibilities are endless. Knowledge is power! Many of us bought into the hype, and many of us have learned there is a heavy price to pay in chasing the American dream. And by price I do mean money. In a capitalist society nothing is free, not even the knowledge and education that has been deemed necessary to achieve great things.
I chose to go to college and immediately enter law school. Let us do a quick break down of the cost of choosing the path to become an attorney: the LSAT (the exam required for admission = $140, law school applications range = $60-$80/per app, the prep course for the LSAT (I chose to buy books and study independently) = $125 but course run $250+, tuition per year = $40-$60,000 (3 years if you go full-time), books per semester = $300-$550, Prep course for the bar exam = $3000, Bar exam = $300-$650 (depends on the state), admission fees (NY) = $350. In total you are looking at $130K and up, mind you this does not include money for housing while you're in school or other miscellaneous fees. Most of my colleagues were lucky to escape owing under $200K in loans. Now surely, you may think this is manageable because you will get a great job paying six figures starting out. False. Very few attorneys begin their career making six figures, and the ones that do have loan payments averaging $1100/month, a pretty hefty payment. The majority of attorneys enter the work force at whatever salary is the norm for their industry be it non-profit, government, public sector, private large firms or private small firms. However no matter what you are paid (find a Public Defender and thank them) you still owe the same large amount of money (imagine making $40-50K as a PD and owing $200K).
This does not simply apply to attorneys but anyone who ultimately pursued the American Dream via college and/or graduate school. It does not stop there, you see loans are the nightmare. Loans are the devil, and quite simply loans are pure evil. This may be seen as anarchy because in a capitalist society such as this one, loans are necessary to our system of credit. You give someone money for their house with the picket fence, or their medical school education, and you get your money back with the accrued interest, which in some cases could ultimately nearly double the vale of the loan. Thought we were done? Nope, let us not forget that the loan companies can sell your loans, in which case if you were on deferment or forbearance, that status is ended and your loan goes back into repayment. Often times you may be completely unaware this has occurred, and it makes in insurmountably more difficult to manage your loans and loan payments.
Thought we were done, nope not yet. I do not know how many of you heard about this thing that happened recently, and is ongoing. It is called a recession. When this event occurs, all bets are off, and loan companies show how ratchet they can be. Yes, I said ratchet. They may not only sell your loans, they may rescind the offer to give you a loan (yeah we paid for the fall, but you on your own for the Spring semester), they will in all likelihood raise the interest rates.
But here goes the uppercut. Ready for TKO. Ready to burn your degree and call for an uprising (joking Big Brother Government Watcher). Whole time - you get out of school with six figure debts, and monthly loan payments that equal loan payments in a big city; your friend who entered the workforce after high school makes as much as you with no loans. Hahaha. Not funny right. That's a what the fuck moment. In some instances (sorry to pull your cards WMATA), but you meet someone with no college education getting paid $75,000 a year starting out to sit in the driver's seat of an electric train, with their sole call of duty being to override any malfunctions. With overtime they are easily making six figures a year, and let me be clear no debt.
Granted some argue that it balances out because in a few years they will reach a glass ceiling , and you (college/grad school graduate) will continue to make more money. But does it really balance. Over the course of 10-20 years you will pay back $140K plus interest during that time you may start at $60K and ultimately makes around $130K at the end of this time period. They start out, if we take the WMATA for example, making $75K and cap at says $100K with no loans. I would really like to see some statistics that not only account for the amount of money you make over time, but accounts for the debt some people have to pay back, and then let us see who makes more over their lifetime. This blog in no way suggests that you should not go to college, law school, business school, medical school, etc. Simply pointing out that the American Dream and the pursuit of it can lead to a crushing amount of debt and the nagging question: "did I make the right decision?"
I chose to go to college and immediately enter law school. Let us do a quick break down of the cost of choosing the path to become an attorney: the LSAT (the exam required for admission = $140, law school applications range = $60-$80/per app, the prep course for the LSAT (I chose to buy books and study independently) = $125 but course run $250+, tuition per year = $40-$60,000 (3 years if you go full-time), books per semester = $300-$550, Prep course for the bar exam = $3000, Bar exam = $300-$650 (depends on the state), admission fees (NY) = $350. In total you are looking at $130K and up, mind you this does not include money for housing while you're in school or other miscellaneous fees. Most of my colleagues were lucky to escape owing under $200K in loans. Now surely, you may think this is manageable because you will get a great job paying six figures starting out. False. Very few attorneys begin their career making six figures, and the ones that do have loan payments averaging $1100/month, a pretty hefty payment. The majority of attorneys enter the work force at whatever salary is the norm for their industry be it non-profit, government, public sector, private large firms or private small firms. However no matter what you are paid (find a Public Defender and thank them) you still owe the same large amount of money (imagine making $40-50K as a PD and owing $200K).
This does not simply apply to attorneys but anyone who ultimately pursued the American Dream via college and/or graduate school. It does not stop there, you see loans are the nightmare. Loans are the devil, and quite simply loans are pure evil. This may be seen as anarchy because in a capitalist society such as this one, loans are necessary to our system of credit. You give someone money for their house with the picket fence, or their medical school education, and you get your money back with the accrued interest, which in some cases could ultimately nearly double the vale of the loan. Thought we were done? Nope, let us not forget that the loan companies can sell your loans, in which case if you were on deferment or forbearance, that status is ended and your loan goes back into repayment. Often times you may be completely unaware this has occurred, and it makes in insurmountably more difficult to manage your loans and loan payments.
Thought we were done, nope not yet. I do not know how many of you heard about this thing that happened recently, and is ongoing. It is called a recession. When this event occurs, all bets are off, and loan companies show how ratchet they can be. Yes, I said ratchet. They may not only sell your loans, they may rescind the offer to give you a loan (yeah we paid for the fall, but you on your own for the Spring semester), they will in all likelihood raise the interest rates.
But here goes the uppercut. Ready for TKO. Ready to burn your degree and call for an uprising (joking Big Brother Government Watcher). Whole time - you get out of school with six figure debts, and monthly loan payments that equal loan payments in a big city; your friend who entered the workforce after high school makes as much as you with no loans. Hahaha. Not funny right. That's a what the fuck moment. In some instances (sorry to pull your cards WMATA), but you meet someone with no college education getting paid $75,000 a year starting out to sit in the driver's seat of an electric train, with their sole call of duty being to override any malfunctions. With overtime they are easily making six figures a year, and let me be clear no debt.
Granted some argue that it balances out because in a few years they will reach a glass ceiling , and you (college/grad school graduate) will continue to make more money. But does it really balance. Over the course of 10-20 years you will pay back $140K plus interest during that time you may start at $60K and ultimately makes around $130K at the end of this time period. They start out, if we take the WMATA for example, making $75K and cap at says $100K with no loans. I would really like to see some statistics that not only account for the amount of money you make over time, but accounts for the debt some people have to pay back, and then let us see who makes more over their lifetime. This blog in no way suggests that you should not go to college, law school, business school, medical school, etc. Simply pointing out that the American Dream and the pursuit of it can lead to a crushing amount of debt and the nagging question: "did I make the right decision?"
posted by K. Jobe | 22:56
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