http://www.susantomes.com/student-finance/ Pianist & writer Tue, 07 Feb 2012 08:56:38 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 http://www.susantomes.com/student-finance/comment-page-1/#comment-551 Susan Tomes Fri, 25 Sep 2009 08:50:40 +0000 http://www.susantomes.com/?p=883#comment-551 How interesting to have an American perspective! Thank you for this insight. How interesting to have an American perspective!
Thank you for this insight.

]]> http://www.susantomes.com/student-finance/comment-page-1/#comment-549 Catalyst Fri, 25 Sep 2009 04:32:30 +0000 http://www.susantomes.com/?p=883#comment-549 From my perspective (5th year undergrad music student), student loans create an artificial sense of financial security, so the results, as you've written about, are students being a lot more loose with their cash. Many people I know take out the maximum amount they are able to in student loans, which is really far more money than they need for living expenses and tuition! So, of course, all that extra, rather than being paid right back onto the loan, gets spent on concerts, restaurants, etc. The average 18-year-old isn't able to think far enough into the future to realize how ridiculous this is. Besides that, the peer pressure you mentioned is another big factor. "If my friends are all squandering their loans, I'll be the loser left alone in dorms on Friday night if I don't go along with it too!" I've tried to break the trend, and have partially succeeded. I'll have about $8000 in loans when I graduate. Not bad. (Also, we do go to more concerts, because a lot of orchestras these days offer extremely cheap tickets for students! We feel it's worthwhile to spend $12 a ticket to see several great concerts a semester, especially when we know we'll be paying $50 a ticket for it in a few years!) From my perspective (5th year undergrad music student), student loans create an artificial sense of financial security, so the results, as you’ve written about, are students being a lot more loose with their cash. Many people I know take out the maximum amount they are able to in student loans, which is really far more money than they need for living expenses and tuition! So, of course, all that extra, rather than being paid right back onto the loan, gets spent on concerts, restaurants, etc. The average 18-year-old isn’t able to think far enough into the future to realize how ridiculous this is. Besides that, the peer pressure you mentioned is another big factor. “If my friends are all squandering their loans, I’ll be the loser left alone in dorms on Friday night if I don’t go along with it too!”
I’ve tried to break the trend, and have partially succeeded. I’ll have about $8000 in loans when I graduate. Not bad.
(Also, we do go to more concerts, because a lot of orchestras these days offer extremely cheap tickets for students! We feel it’s worthwhile to spend $12 a ticket to see several great concerts a semester, especially when we know we’ll be paying $50 a ticket for it in a few years!)

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