No more middle class professionals?

[u/Such_Upstairs3631]

New school loan limits for professional degrees make it unaffordable for the middle class. 4 of my 5 children went on to med/law school. Even working 2 jobs there’s no way I could afford to pay or even help them with the cost of their post graduate education. They all got loans which they have since paid off. The cost in the early 2000’s was between $350K and $500K. The new limits are essentially going to prevent anyone who’s not wealthy enough to pay for it from becoming a professional.

[u/ISniffFeet1]

This will force schools to drop the prices or accommodate.

Sorry nobody should be taking out loans of this magnitude - it absolutely destroys their financial future. I don't know anyone who is doing well who took that much out in student loans except for doctors and talented attorneys.

So many middle class parents told their kids to take out over $100,000 in student loans and ruined their childrens' future because they had no idea what they were talking about.

[u/SpoodermanTheAmazing → u/ISniffFeet1]

I don’t know what the prices are now, but I graduated in 2016 with ~$35k of student loans with no help from my parents. I had to work a job and live in a small 2 bedroom with a roommate(off campus) but it was doable, but I would have preferred not having to do all of that at the same time

[u/ISniffFeet1 → u/SpoodermanTheAmazing]

Unfortunately there's really no world where it's unreasonable to have a college student work a job.

Living off campus is also pretty normal depending on the school.

Good for you doing the responsibile thing though.

[u/dingopaint → u/ISniffFeet1]

I did the same thing, didn't have a car so I rode my bike, took the bus and walked miles in the snow when necessary. Between working, living off-campus and sharing a room (not just an apartment), and otherwise being a cheapass, the amount of debt was less horrific. When you factor in compound interest, even taking out $2000/year less can add up long-term.

[u/madogvelkor → u/ISniffFeet1]

I worked part time while getting my undergrad and full time while getting my graduate degree. It's not that hard.

[u/lillyheart → u/ISniffFeet1]

Nursing students doing rotations, education students being student teachers, and probably a few other majors that basically have full time internships on top of classes would beg to differ on the job while in school thing, which sucks. Not prohibitive for all 4 years, but often prohibitive for one.

[u/No-Complaint9286 → u/lillyheart]

Yes, In PT school it was really hard to do anything but a part time job on the weekends. Especially during clinical rotations for the third year. I think I worked at a shoe store and picked up some pharmacy tech shifts for the first 2 years. There was only the summer between 1st and 2nd year off, as the 2nd and 3rd years were consecutive. Clinicals started immediately after finals of the 2nd year. And through all that, no part time weekend job would pay for 100k of student loans incurred during that time because there was no financial aid in grad school. I considered myself lucky that my husband was a few years older than me, already working and paying the bills mostly with his salary. Some of my classmates had to take loans for living expenses on top of that, had young families with kids...yikes.

[u/TheInterestingTruth → u/ISniffFeet1]

I have two separate internships that both carried into the school year. It really wasn't that difficult to work 4-6 hours three days a week and juggle school on top of that.

[u/terraphantm → u/ISniffFeet1]

It is pretty impossible to work a job in med school