re: Are student loans (for undergrads) trashy?

No. What's trashy is the previous generations telling people that they need to go to college because they should be thankful of the opportunities that they themselves didn't have. "Be whatever you want to be". "Just get a degree."

What they fail to realize is that anyone with half a brain can get a degree and it's been that way for 2 decades or longer now. There isn't anything special or distinguishing about it anymore.

It's an investment like anything else. Take out loans if you know you will make a return. It comes down to realistic parenting. I was dumb as frick when I was 18, but I was at least smart enough to go for a money making degree. If I didn't have that sense, I would have needed a parent or someone to tell me I was being dumb as hell and to skip college if I wanted to pursue gender studies.

quote:

---

Google says around 80k total living in the dorms

---

Looks like you are right.

Still insanely expensive.

It should be possible to pay for public university tuition by working while attending.

quote:

---

We have almost reached the point where going to community college for 2 years and then transferring to a state school is the smart/responsible/forward thinking route.

---

Know a family whose son skipped the traditional engineering school route and enrolled at Lamar Inst. of Technology in Beaumont for process tech. Finished in 18 months, less than 10k total tuition. Works at a plant making about 70 or 80 apparently. He's 66% faster to market than other grads. No debt. It was a brilliant strategy and they don't care if he didn't go to a major university.

Anchoring shite doesn't make the issue go away...

The other possibility is living at home for college and saving oodles of money .

quote:

---

Back in the day, most middle class kids had parents pay for college with college savings, or at least had a plan with the kid to combine the amount of savings and job kid got in college to pay for college.

---

I am uncertain if that is actually correct on its face, I will say that if you look at the raw numbers, it looks to me like the student loan rate did not rise as fast as the cost of attending college.

quote:

---

I understand loans for grad school and professional school, but racking up significant amount of student loan debt as an undergrad seems like a significant lack of foresight and judgement from both parents and students, and is therefore trashy.

---

That is a case by case basis and those decisions may take a lot more into account than you are giving credit for. Some may actually have the money but may want their kid to be responsible for the cost to a degree so have them take out a student loan that they can pay back by earning it when they leave college by either graduating or dropping out. And may reward the graduate with some or all of the money for the loan. Just a thought on that.

I do think many people do it without any real forethought

None of that is trashy, some may be irresponsible or shortsighted but not trashy.

Trashy is making a blanket derogatory statement about people trying their best to allow their kids an opportunity to do better in life.

And one more thing...

quote:

---

Are student loans (for undergrads) trashy?

---

I hope not. If so, everyone of my friends, that went to college, is trashy.