[somehnguy]

My highest was 14%. At their suggested payment rate it was going to take something like 15 years to pay off because the payments are mostly just covering interest. Without giving too much information away this loan was for an in-state state university, not some crazy expensive private school. It's borderline criminal in my opinion.

I'm so glad I was talked into going to a state university instead of the great private school I got accepted at, the loans for that would still be absolutely soul crushing. The loans I have now are just mildly soul crushing.

[chrisseaton]

I thought the unspoken truth was almost nobody actually pays the published private tuition rates so it’s usually actually cheaper or even free to go to a private university?

[akavi]

Depends on the private university. At the very top (HYPMS), that's true (unless your family is very wealthy). It was cheaper for me to attend Yale than my sister to attend UT Austin, despite my parents being fairly affluent (dual-income engineers).

But the generosity of grants falls off sharply as you leave that tier. Financial assistance at schools like NYU are almost 100% in the form of loans.

[somehnguy]

Maybe people more well off or the opposite than I. As someone smack dab in the middle (my parents were just starting to make OK money and not struggle as I finished high school, AKA non-existent savings but current income looked good) the university said our out of pocket costs were around $40k a year when we sat down with financial aid. They give you next to nothing in cases like that, it is expected to be all parents money or loans. Not happening.

That was the case for the 2 private schools I visited while in the process of picking a college. Very small sample size of course, YMMV.

[nitrogen]

it is expected to be all parents money or loans

It's really problematic for large families, where schools expect parents of six kids to pay tuition as if they only had one kid.

[monocasa]

Or my friends who were twins, but all of the algorithms were setup as if they wouldn't be going to college concurrently for some reason.

[chrisseaton]

Or I wonder what happens when you have parents who just decline to pay for you.

[monocasa]

I had parents that not only refused to pay, but also refused to fill out the FAFSA forms. At the time even being an emancipated minor wasn't enough to not look at your parents for non private loans or grants.

I only got private loans and dropped out after one year. I couldn't make the numbers work beyond that.

[gopher_space]

They'll knock a few grand off for various points, kind of like you're buying a new car. You're still spending a lot of money. Think of it as a car dealership with promotional giveaways.

[b9a2cab5]

Sounds like you screwed up. Current private student loan rates are on the order of 3-5%. Refi's are less than that. And that's ignoring the newfangled stuff like ISAs where there aren't even any loans to begin with.

[somehnguy]

I would *love* to know how you think I 'screwed up' as a high school kid who applied for and accepted the only college loans that were approved. My parents and I went to the planning workshops to prepare for college, we filled out the endless forms, we jumped through all the hoops. That is what I got.

It seems that a whole generation must have screwed up as well - because I am far from a unique case here. The constant talk of student debt forgiveness, default rates, and tuition costs must all just be about nothing then, my bad.

What an absurd comment.

[b9a2cab5]

> constant talk of student debt forgiveness

This is mostly because a lot of people got useless degrees that don't result in high paying jobs, not because of some intrinsic cost of education. The number of STEM degrees awarded [1] is far outstripped by non-STEM degrees in both number of degrees awarded and growth rate [2].

I am merely saying the current private student loan rate is 3-5%. It is not possible for substantial interest to accumulate at that rate, particularly if you factor in inflation (6.8% YoY this month...)

[1]: https://www.nsf.gov/nsb/sei/edTool/data/college-14.html [2]: https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d12/tables/dt12_310.asp

[somehnguy]

Are you under the false impression that the majority of people taking loans for college only utilize government provided ones? I don't believe that to be true, everyone I know (including myself) had to utilize private providers such as Navient (SallieMae) or others to cover college tuition. That is where the insane interest rates come from and aren't reflected in your data of 3-5% rates.

Them being 'private' loans is a bit misleading as well, as they are technically backed by the government, as far as even bankruptcy will not remove them. Navient is just the servicer & middleman to collect the profits. It's more complicated than this of course but that seems to be the gist of it.