Vocaboly.com

[Steve Stone]

February 22, 2004

Paying for college is serious business

By Paul Brooks
Times Herald-Record

New Paltz - Amanda Siseustein stands in the student cafeteria at SUNY New
Paltz, a string of wooden beads and $40,000 in college debt around her neck.
It's a Tuesday. President George W. Bush is sending his proposed federal
budget to Congress. Siseustein admits that her four years of college have
come at a hefty pricetag, and she is not done yet. A yearning to sing tugs
at her, so she is staying to work on a second major - in music - racking up
yet more debt.
"If there are cuts to federal aid, I will have to stop school and work
and save and then come back," she says. Two of her friends have already gone
that route. One still hasn't returned.
Their own college debt may have something to do with that.
The nationwide average of student debt at the end of four years is
$18,900, according to figures from last year. While that pile of debt is
more than twice as high as it was back in 1989, it pales in comparison to
what some students carry now. Debts mounting to $80,000 or $100,000 and more
are not unheard of. And that is not counting credit cards, car insurance or
other bills.
The burden of tuition and the like are not just for future doctors or
lawyers or accountants. Some with those debts want to be poets or
photographers.
This month is the time of year prospective college students and their
befuddled parents measure the urges of the heart and mind against the
checkbook. Most local high schools send a lot more than half their students
on to higher education of some sort.
Here are some cold, hard facts:
Siseustein's $40,000 debt will cost her nearly $400 a month at 3.42
percent interest. That's every month for 10 years. Experts recommend student
debt account for no more than 15 percent of income. By that rule, Siseustein
will need a job that pays at least $31,000 a year to keep her college loan
payment in line. That's not impossible at a nonprofit, where she wants to
work, but it is far from guaranteed.
A monthly payment of $1,000 to $1,200 awaits the poet. That's the tab on
the $100,000 debt she expects to have when she finishes graduate school. At
that level, she'll need an annual salary of at least $80,000, according to
the experts.
"Basically, I have no concrete plan to pay off my debt," said the Orange
County native, who didn't want to be identified. "Poetry isn't exactly a
lucrative profession. But I am determined to find a way to make a living.
For the level of success I wanted in my life, I felt that I needed a much
more competitive education."
That education cost more than $35,000 a year as an undergraduate.
Graduate school expenses top $45,000 a year. Graduate school was a
reasonable alternative to a weak job market for undergraduates, she said. A
master's degree opens doors to teaching and publishing, she figured. Staying
in school keeps the loan bills on hold too and allows her to have health
insurance of some kind. It also gives her more time to figure out how to
handle her debt.
The first thing is to see where the limits are, according to Pam Krieger,
who graduated from Fallsburg High School in 1997.
Since then she has earned a bachelor's degree in hotel and resort
management from the University of Delaware. That was on her parents' tab,
she says. She collected a master's degree in human resources from Marymount
College of Virginia in December. Those bills of $200-$300 a month are all
hers, she says from Virginia, outside Washington, D.C., where she works and
lives.
The bills mean changes in her lifestyle.
Already, she shares an apartment with two friends. Even so, her share of
the rent is $550 a month. "I might not be able to go out to dinner," she
says.
There is no break in sight for incoming college classes.
"The states are not supporting higher education to the degree they did 10
to 15 years ago," says Daniel Sistarenik, director of Financial Aid at the
State University of New York at New Paltz. "There are some states that have
raised tuition twice in a year."
States face their own pressure from reductions in federal funds.
"If you want a four-year school, there is no way the average student is
going to get through without getting into some debt," Sistarenik says.
The key to how well students and their families will handle the
increasing college debt load depends on the economy, Sistarenik says.
"If the economy doesn't really take off soon, student loans could be
problematic in a couple of years," Sistarenik says. "I think we are at a
crossroads. It will be interesting to see how much more debt families and
students can hold."
It will be more for some than others.
"I did what was right for me." the poet said. "But students should
definitely weigh the pros and cons of following their dreams and the
resulting costs. I think it's a personal decision."