Florida State U. graduate student Ryan Bennett will have $20,000 in student loan debt. Senior Torie Nugent will accumulate $24,000. Junior Melia Orrell will surpass $70,000. These three Seminoles, though from different states and engaged in different fields of study, all share in the common struggle to finance their education through student loans.
In 2012, Americans racked up over $1 trillion in student loans. It has become 35 percent of the federal government’s debt and now outpaces credit card debt as a leading source of household debt. As a college degree becomes more crucial to compete in today’s workforce, students are taking on more student loans to ensure a return on their educational investment.
Marc Samardzija, an FSU doctoral student in Economics and teaching assistant, was trading stocks on Wall Street in 2008 during the onset of the Great Recession. As he observed with the housing mortgage crisis, he foresees another bubble waiting to burst in student loan debt.
“I think it’s already kind of burst a little bit,” said Samardzija. “This is kind of being swept under the rug. But if it’s not addressed, we could see in two or three years, if things haven’t improved and the economy hasn’t turned around enough where more jobs are created and these loan debt obligations aren’t able to be met, then you will see this become a forefront as an issue both in education and the finances of this country.”
Samardzija believes that college has become an institution of business rather than education, creating a dangerous relationship with financial and banking industries.
“You have all of these investment banks who depend on a very strong source of revenue of loans to basically be able to upkeep their business and schools the same thing they bring a strong supply of students,” said Sarmardzija. “You mix two together and the cost of education is skyrocketing.”
Ryan Bennett has dreamed of studying meteorology since he was in kindergarten. Now a graduate student, Bennett is closer to realizing his dream but deeper in student loan debt as he pursues it.
“If I didn’t have these loans, I wouldn’t have made it through undergrad,” said Bennett. “I wouldn’t have even been able to come to graduate school because my tuition—there’s no way I would have been able to pay it off.”
Bennett proposes that student loans be adjusted for STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) majors to give them the financial means to succeed in these areas that are critical to our nation’s ability to compete in the international arena.
International Affairs and Spanish student Melia Orrell considers her impending $70,000 student loan debt “outrageous” and challenges the nation to demand greater access to post-secondary education.
“I could make anywhere from $20,000 a year to $200,000 a year and I have no way of knowing what I’ll end up making and therefore it causes me a lot of anxiety,” said Orrell. “I don’t know how I’m going to pay it back.”
With financial uncertainty, Orrell also believes that Florida State should address the practical uncertainty associated with loans by educating students about the implications of student loan debt.
“Honestly, I’m a junior and I still don’t know how its going to work after I graduate,” said Orrell. “I don’t when I’m going to have to start paying loans back, I don’t know how much I’m going to be paying a month or a year, I don’t know if it’s going to be based on my salary. I know it sounds irresponsible, but honestly I don’t really know where to go for the right information.”
FSU acting major and Massachusetts native Torie Nugent is paying out-of-state tuition, but says that the prestige of Florida State’s program outweighs what will become “just another bill.”
Nonetheless, she said she believes that the government should play a role in helping students repay their loans.
“I think that a deferment program would help a lot of people trying to make the transition from college to real life,” said Nugent. “It would allow them more economic freedom so they might be able to work and save more so that it would be easier to pay off those loans.”
While companies like MassMutual Insurance are reaching out to students through social media to offer creative student loan debt solutions, it is clear that the future of college affordability will require input from the front lines of universities, the federal government and private industry alike.