Why Do Students Have So Much Debt? 

Hello and Hi Everyone! Because this is a new episode/upload I'll be signed on here for the next hour answering the comments and questions that roll in. So drop them below and let's talk about student loan debt (or anything else). Let's go! -Danielle

I just paid off my student loans two days ago. It only took me 21 years to do so...😬

Am I the only person noticing that the US government didn't significantly subsidize higher education until it was an incentive for war? That makes me uncomfortable with the priorities of the country.

I don't remember who the comedian was. On tv many years ago he said "I spent $50,000 to get my college degree-glad I didn't do something stupid with that money, like buy a house!!!

So thankful that I went to a community college and paid for it debt free and not a state college

Gosh, it is very difficult to focus on my classes when all I can think off is all the money I owe. Sometimes it feels like higher education isn't worth the cost and I could've just put a down payment on a house. I am in art school and instructors often tell us we will have to be working retail on the side for a steady income. So why are we in school then???

Australia - pay college later only if you earn above AUD$40,000 a year. No interest. Only indexed to inflation. I never paid anything while i was in university.

We need to get away form the cultural phenomenon of having to attend college in order to be successful. Colleg degrees shouldnt be required for basic jobs such as an assistant or a front desk position. We are a country of over saturation of college degrees and more manual labor no one wants to do.

Stepson #1 has $89,000 student loan debt. His wife has $63,000. There total payment, after adjustment, is $1,800. Stepson #2 has $72,000 debt. His payments after adjustment is $900. What you should never do: Attend a private for profit school. These schools are ripoffs. Stepson #1 paid $30,000 for an 18 month graphic design program. Only job he was offered was $7.35 per hour screen printing t-shirts. Nothing transferred so he had to start over from square one. Private for profits will promise you everything to get you enrolled. Again, these schools are RIP offs. Dont fall into their trap. 2. Use student loans for living expenses. Too often money for rent etc gets used for entertainment. I was a education/job counselor for 30 years.

This ignored all the massive spending pits in universities that don’t even improve the educational quality for the students. Things like multi-million dollar salaries for board members and directors and presidents, or enormous football stadiums to draw in even more money to the sports programs. Higher education is treated like a corporation with those in power leeching tens or hundreds of millions of dollars off the students annually without many significant improvements in the quality of lives of students and workers.

I'm less than 6k away from paying off my student loans. My plan is to be finished paying them off by the end of the summer. Yes, a lot of my income goes to paying them off. But I'd rather not be in debt. (I started with 37k) I started in college in 2005, and my whole first year was paid for by Pell Grants, Cal Grants (resident of California), and scholarships. Then Cal Grants disappeared.

Got my RN for free from my local community college. No debt, easily employable, skilled and well paid. There are ways around the problem.

I just moved to France 🇫🇷 where university inscription fees are around 200€

I can’t believe people are still going to college at these prices.

I went to college for 1 semester for a 3.4 GPA and never went back. I then went and got a trade that will always be in high demand. I now make over 100k yearly. I love my job and I owe no student loan debt.

So an 18 year old that recently graduated high school is expected to know how to deal with all of those weird names and numbers? No wonder they don’t know about all of their options for paying college

Here in Belgium my daughter has done Veterinarian studies, 6 year college. Because my income was quite low and I was a single mother she could apply for a state scholarship of about €3500 every year. The college fee was reduced to € 80 per year. She was also lucky to find a room in a University owned complex. Those rooms are at reduced prices for people with low income. Off course the books and other things she needed for her studies were the usual price. The government gives out these grants so that children of every income can do university studies. There are a lot foreign students at our universities, what makes it quite interesting.

I promised myself no more debt. No house no car no degree is worth it. Community college. Used car. Rent.

A lot of money could be saved if they stopped subsidizing for-profit education. If your credits don't transfer or graduates don't have a high percentage of employment for their studied fields then no money for you.

I wish they resolved this issue. I'm still in debt.

Greed. The answer is greed. University in Europe is free. Masters programs in *English* across Europe are also free. People in Europe laugh at Americans for allowing their system to be as corrupt as it is. Theres no reason for your health care to be expensive, theres no reason it costs $23,000 to have a baby in America and theres no reason for your university to cost anything more than $500 a year. Neither should you be outfitted with a lifetime debt at the age of 18. The cycle will however continue, and for the banks and loan offices, thats the best part.

Good job covering the topic! I paid off my student loans last year. About 35k, 5 years after graduating from my trade school. College costs are insane, it is amazing to me that there are high school grads still signing up. What is even more amazing to me is the lack of guidance from parents or adults in kids lives. The government is the biggest reason why this is a problem, but if my kids tell me they want to take out 60k in federal loans at 8 percent interest over 10 years for a degree in philosophy I would tell them absolutely not. That's what parents should be doing right now. Learn how to tell your kids no. Learn how to say your dreams are stupid, get a hair cut and a real job. Skilled labor is where the money is at right now anyways.

My response to all those who went to college and think every situation is as simple and easy as your own. My husband retired and moved out of state leaving me with an adult daughter with mental disabilities. I was a stay at home mom for 20 years. I returned to school because I could not get a job that paid me enough to live. I live in the country with an old car and no public transportation. Could not afford to move, no credit cards. I took out student loans to try to keep a roof over my daughter's head as well as my own while attending college. Her mental health declined and being abandoned by her father didn't help either. After several years and abandoning a few courses to take care of her, my debt climbed. You think your getting somewhere, and that when you get out of college you'll have a good paying job. After a few years and a few stays in the mental ward, my daughter finally got SSI. Now I have a hodge podge of classes and only accomplished a general associates. Not worth the debt but I have a place to live. Would I make different choices if I'd known the future, you bet. But it is what it is now. Please realize not everyone goes to expensive colleges and just racks up debt living it up on student loans. Real people are struggling to have a better life.

The Student-Debt Crisis Hits Hardest at Historically Black Colleges • HBCU alumni have a median federal-debt load of about $29,000 at graduation-32% above graduates of other public and nonprofit four-year schools. • The majority of HBCU grads haven’t paid down even $1 of their original loan balance in the first few years out of school. Robert F. smith is awesome for his generosity for agreeing to pay off Morehouse ‘19 graduating class $40M in loans.

In New Zealand, all student loans are issued by the Government through Studylink. They are interest free, so long as the student stays in the country, and parents are not means tested for it. The repayments get automatically deducted with your tax, if you work.

In order to finish my degree I had to take out exorbitant loans at ridiculous rates to finish my final year. I've been paying on my loans for eight years and I still have over $50k left to pay off. Thinking about how I was taken advantage of in my last year makes me so angry! No one told me that in order to make my degree worth anything I would have to study abroad. When I find this out and go to study abroad, they assume my ramen noodle 3x a day self has $40k to pull out of my ass for a SINGLE YEAR. Needless to say, my degree is now worthless. And the alumni association still has the NERVE to ask for more money. I can't even begin to express how furious at the whole situation the whole college experience has made me. Not to mention that the money I would be using to save for a house is all going to student loans. I feel like I'm stuck paying for a house without the house.

Thank you for saying something and drawing attention to this epidemic

A great explanation of how complex the situation is. Reminds me of the complexity of increasing healthcare costs/debt in the last 30 years. Anyone offering a simple solution to the problem should be made to watch this video to understand all the steps that got us here

If I owe you $100,000, I have a problem. If I owe you $1,000,000,000,000, you have a problem.

Sadly for me I got student debt bc I went to college to get a fancy piece of paper that sadly hasn't helped me at all. Nearly all the jobs (that I want to work at) all keep asking for years of experience. That's where my frustration comes from, not so much that I have debt but that no job will let get the experience many require so then I can pay off the loans faster.

this was so good and so maddening. It sucks that lower and middle class young adults get taken for this ride and not enough is being done to protect us/them. Information is the best weapon. If students didn't have to focus on class they could protest but it seems so much harder to have a bargaining chip when you're paying to be there. I graduated Dec 2012 and I'm dealing with debt. I have had other privileges that make it hurt less but it's still a hassle. And with how much I'm paying back it makes ODU begging me for donations suck that much more. If only more billionaires made like Robert Smalls and gifted hard-workers a better future. I don't want graduates to have to sign away their next 20 years to a debt mountain.

Elimination of current loans is unfair to some students. Some students paid almost their entire amount, whereas some others have not started paying. This policy discriminates against the students who repaid their loans to a large extent. A better policy would be an equal releif policy. Everyone gets the same relief amount, if you have already paid some of your loan, you can keep the money. If you have only started paying, your debt would be substantially lowered.

Very scholarly work and presentation. Thank you!

Man! This makes me glad I didn't go to college.

She didn’t a awesome job presenting this information! I love her voice!

The government backs nearly all student loans. It jacked up the availability of cash for college, demand skyrocketed.

Some parents are unaware of the 529 savings plan.

IVY League I see. Great job! You do an excellent job with your dialogue with presenting these various topics. That alone amplifies my engagement to stay tune from start to finish. Bravo!

This is by far the best explanation I have viewed on the history of student loans in the USA. Well done!

I am so grateful to be living in a country where I am expected to finish university with zero doubt. Wow. Education should not cost you your life. Also I'm living in the Global South and in a middle income country - America has very few excuses to continue this trend in my opinion.

well done information and I'll definitely share this video.👍🏾 Fiscal transparency I like the way that sounds. 🤔

I feel like they’re trying to keep students in college longer. I had to jet after 4 years phewwww

On track to be debt free next year. Can’t wait to say goodbye to SalleMay

Work while your in college in jobs or fields that actually have value and can pay. Going 200k in debt for a social worker degree and field that maxes out at 35k is stupid. Tech jobs don't care about your degree, but you need to be willing to learn.

Russia launches Sputnik /domino effect/ I owe the US government 30 grand

When I was in college, the public university I attended decided to raise tuition by a fairly decent percentage to pay for a shiny new fitness center. Last time I checked, you go to a university to get a degree in a hopefully marketable major. You don't go in order to work out on a treadmill or lift weights. The cost of that tuition increase far exceeded the cost of joining a private gym. It's crazy, and we the students had no choice in the matter.

Become an electrician/Carpenter/Plumber

As I was watching this video I was wondering about the culpability of the students for taking out the loans as well as the majors and schools that they choose. Then I saw that the pitch for new show 'Monstrum' and the person with the PhD in literature with a focus in monsters.

Great video. Thank you very much for this! I hope to educate new students and help them minimize the amount of loans they get for their education!

Message to minimum-wage workers: if you want to earn more you need to learn more, build up your qualifications. ... worker takes that advice, takes on debt--because they sure-as-heck couldn't build up savings on minimum wage. Message to student debtors: you shouldn't have taken on debt you couldn't afford. The US is collectively shooting itself in the foot by making higher education a for-profit enterprise. We've been in an age for a long time in which a highly educated populace is a must. We're going to see very soon the rise of highly educated people augmented with AI and nothing will save the US then.

I think one of the primary contributing factors is rarely talked about. Too many students choose majors that interest them instead of majors that will make them employable. Borrow $100k to get a degree in accounting, engineering, or computer science. You'll be making at least $25k more than if you didn't have a degree and you can pay it off in 5 years with the excess. By the time you're 30 you'll be out of debt, and for the rest of your career you'll be making a lot more than you would if you didn't go to college. Borrow $100k to get a degree in art history and you'll get the same job that you would have gotten if you didn't have a degree, not to mention the four years you weren't earning any income, and you'll never be out of debt. If you get a useful degree you'll be better off going to college even if it means borrowing. If you get a useless degree you're far worse off than if you don't go to college. If art history interest you, read a book about it.

I only borrowed 15k student loan by going to state school in computer engineering then got a job as a software engineer getting paid 130k right out of college. Paid off my loan immediately. Now getting paid 190k 3 yrs later. Make right decision ppl. Life without a loan feels so good.

That's why it's important for students in high school to seriously think about if college is right for them personally . Because student college debt is over $ 1.2 Trillion Dollars right here in the U.S.A. now in 2020 😒. Truly Yours Mr.Cottrell 😉.

I've read somewhere, if a college wants a student, the college should guarantee loan payback from their endowment funds; or otherwise pay outright tuition costs from endowment funds, which, for most schools, have grown astronomically over the past decades.

1:41 that smile of "We're fucked and here's how it happened"

Student loans are horrible. I attended a private grad school and was expected to pay almost $1500 a month. I asked for a income based repayment plan, it was approved... then it went back to about $1500 with not one notification. Once I contacted them, the website reported that the uploaded pay stub font was small and hard to read... so they just didn't do anything...

I pay 320 € a term, Germany is very supportive.

I had to go to a meeting before I got my loans. A lady bank employee told us if we Never paid a single cent on our loans after 10 years the Federal government would pay the bank back for all our loans.

The same snowball effect mechanics that she points out here which caused education costs to balloon are similar to those which have caused healthcare costs to balloon. It all starts with a short-sighted government program to "help" these items become more affordable. A vicious cycle.... awful

Comparing Canada where I am with the US it seems that the US costs roughly twice as much in tuition and fees as Canada. For domestic (same state/province) students in each country in US dollars for yearly undergrad tuition and fees, it costs on average ~$5,000 in Canada and $10,000 in the US [1]. Now this varies a lot by province/state and increases far more dramatically for out of state students than out of province ones and even more dramatically for international students. Another thing that makes post-secondary cheaper in Canada are RESP savings which are registered tax-free savings that parents put aside for their kid's future education. And these appear to have been fairly effective since around 59% of school costs (more than just tuition) in Canada in 2018 were paid by RESPs [2]. So although it is unusual to be like me and finish an Undergrad without any debt in Canada due to RESPs, work terms, and scholarships, it is probably far more common here than in the US. I wonder how the history of education and loans compares here with our southern neighbours. And I wonder how some current decisions in Ontario will affect the cost of education in Canada in the future [3][4]. [1] www.topuniversities.com/student-info/student-finance/how-much-does-it-cost-study-canada ($6600 CAD is $5000 USD), www.topuniversities.com/student-info/student-finance/how-much-does-it-cost-study-us [2] www.macleans.ca/education/the-cost-of-a-canadian-university-education-in-six-charts/ [3] globalnews.ca/news/4856924/ontario-tuition-cuts/ [4] www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-new-metrics-for-ontario-university-and-college-funding-include/

Had to work my way through a non-traditional college. Was on my own. No roommates, as it was a hard situation for myself to create living where I do. I did well in college and only acquired $22,600 in debt when I left college. Here is the thing, I could not find a job that paid $30,000 a year, back in 1999. In fact, it took me 13 years to start making that much money and I had to work 7 days a week to make $30,000 a year in the human services field. My loans which I was unable to pay on soared up and up and I will never be able to nick the principal in this lifetime. Ultimately, what this woman is saying is absolutely correct. Recently, I heard a graduate on TV news state, "If we do not pay our loans back we won't appreciate our education." Well, as far as I am concerned, I have paid for my college education physically, and emotionally. I worked full time while attending college, and between working full time, and studying I missed out on having a relationship, and children, and everything else life has to offer. Then there is a debt that has crippled me emotionally leaving me with great angst.

I had student loans and paid them off - I just hunkered down and did it. A long term view of a purchase (in this case, spending tens of thousands of dollars) with borrowed money can be helpful, but I think that many people do not take a long-term view that would serve them better. Any purchase a person makes has consequences, and nothing is guaranteed to us. I am sorry that so many people got it to so much debt by borrowing so much money for college. They made a decision with a calculated risk, and now they are being held accountable for their decisions. There are many stories of people who lost their homes when the 2008 housing bubble burst. So many people took on loans for houses they simply could not afford. They made poor decisions and paid the price for those decisions. But, looking at the front end of how they got themselves in to those situations - low paying jobs, balloon mortgage payments, auto loans also, and so on - they had no business taking on those mortgages. Look, they can borrow what they want - but there will be consequences. There are some parallels, I think, with the student loan situation. No one is forcing people to take out student loans. I live in a college town and I see how many, though certainly not all, students live. They have a lifestyle that shows they are spending someone else's money. In a way they are, but since the money is borrowed, they are really spending their own money, or they are spending money from someone else that will take them many years of work to repay.

Only big thing I have to disagree with is that no only for profit schools increase their prices by 300% since I believe 1994, but so did nonprofit traditional school raise their prices. Even state schools increased prices.

I also had the same concern on student debt. I joined the US Marines and got my first Bachelors and Masters. I got out debt-free and the GI Bill paid for my second Bachelors and second Masters. No debt whatsoever. Maybe more people should join, even the coast guard. It makes you fall in love with your country all over again, you make lifelong friends, have fun, and get no debt in the end!!! Not a bad deal at all.

I also love that on one hand, we have people telling us "Well if you want more pay, get a degree and get a better job!" and on the other hand we have people saying "Well if you don't want the debt, skip college and work your way up in a company! Experience is the main thing!" I don't know when you last looked for a job, but everything entry-level right now requires a Bachelor's degree. You might squeak through with an Associate's, but most need a Bachelor's. And none of those pay well. Theoretically you could get an unpaid internship or an internship with a stipend, but how will you pay rent during that time? Work another job? Minimum wage doesn't pay rent, and then add debt payment on top of that? This system is broken. Some people can manage to maneuver themselves into a comfortable position after years of work and a lot of luck, but a few success stories don't negate the fact that for the vast majority of people, this system is BROKEN.

because the lenders know students can't dump the debt in bankruptcy.

My parents went to college in the 1950's. Tuition and fees and books were much cheaper, but still cost a lot back then. My parents were both struggling to become middle class. My mom put herself through college while working, without help from her mom and stepfather, who were a butcher and a grocery store / bank clerk; my grandmother was a poor farm girl who'd moved to the city and worked. My dad was a farm boy, not rich, and he'd served in the army and then went to college after, while working, probably on the G.I. Bill for education. Their college fees and book fees were only in the hundreds of dollars per semester. -- My own college fees were already in the thousands of dollars per semester in the mid 1980's, and my parents were upper middle class at the time, so I worked some but basically got support from them for college. Yet later health problems and a bust in the engineering and oil and gas industry ruined much of my parents' savings, and then taking care of my grandmother completely ruined my savings and what I'd gotten from my parents, who had passed away. The cost of a single college semester now is outrageous. I wonder how I would've been able to go to college, even with the comparable income we had then and if I'd worked during college. I didn't graduate the first time around. I went back and got a two-year associate's degree with honors, while working hard. Costs were already climbing then. Now, I'm over 50, still handicapped, and can't really afford to go back to college full-time. This cycle, where people are at risk of falling out of the middle class, of losing their paths to a better life and income and education, is a dangerous thing, when it can affect so many middle class and working class people. They deserve a good education. Their work and ideas are the engine that drive our economy. Destroying the ability for the average American to get a good education could doom our country's future. Somehow, we have to solve the student debt problem and make college attainable for every eligible student. If you are smart enough and hard-working enough to get a college education, then you are needed; you deserve that; our country's future depends on that. We can't know who the next great people are who could change the world for the better. It might well be that immigrant kid whose family don't speak English yet, or that black or brown kid from the projects, or that middle class suburban white kid, or that handicapped kid, or that gay kid. Notice I said kid, not boy or girl, because it could be either or both, who make those great changes to better everyone's life. That's what's at risk. Just because you're different or poor, you still deserve that chance at an education, or we all risk losing out on what you might contribute. Everyone is needed and deserves an equal chance.

This is why I joined the military to pay for school.

You look BEAUTIFUL Danielle😍 your makeup & that glow & you don't seem yourself so much your humor & personality seem muted. Hoping your just under the weather. So stoked to see you make new videos!!!🤗

I'm so glad I joined the army years ago so I wouldn't have to payback student loans. The Post 911 GI bill is amazing.

I love this channel! Im not sure if there is enough information on this and would like to know more about why the school day end two hours before the workday?

Everybody saying don't go to college but if you have no skills or no idea what you want to do in life then you kinda should. It doesn't have to be a university, you could go to a trade school or community college full-time or part-time and work a job.

Because they're expected to go (in order to pursue a career) and if they don't have parents supporting them, scholarships, or if they're not working themselves then they can get into a lot of debt. It's not necessarily a bad thing because most will be able to pay off the debt in a reasonable amount of time if they get a decent income

It can be summed up without this crazy long video..... No risk to the lenders = rising cost = student dept crisis...

In Trinidad, tertiary education used to be totally free for about 10 years (and right before that it was 50% subsidized) and thankfully I was one of those who benefited. Now it's subsidized based on a means test.

my strategy is dont go to college, live with parents until you are 30 years old, buy a house, rent out your rooms on airbnb

Tell me about it... Two grad programs😳

Its a big problem TODAY because all through high school parents and teachers tell kids "If you want a Good job, you Need to go to college." Then they basically leave it up to a 18 year old to figure out Where they are going to school, to sign up for all the grant money and loans they can, get a dorm room, furnish their dorm room, party it up like any college kid will for the first year or two before they get serious and after 5-6 years graduate with that "4 year" degree in some already overcrowded field- and just end up taking any job that pays over $14/hr. and get roommates, disillusioned with life, and regret every moment of college for the rest of their lives. It was a fun experience, but not worth the price tag. They could have gone to disney world 30, 40, 50 times or so. They could have been saving up to get their clunker car traded up for a newer one. They could be buying a house, starting a family. But no. They got a degree. And its not really helping them. Thanks for being honest though. Government handouts screw people over Every time. College rates went up outrageously as soon as they saw all that money the government wanted to give out to spend on college. Hmm, exactly like how medical costs skyrocketed when medicare/medicaid became a thing. Pull the plug on the money, watch how fast those fields drop their prices.

Thank you for explaining all of this.

Stop hating we are turning to get a education so we don’t become homeless & jobless oh wait ...

This is my new favorite channel

I watched my tuition almost double between 2005 and 2007, I paid attention to it all right! The trouble was that I had already borrowed a significant amount and believed if I just press on and finish I would graduate and make enough to pay it back quickly and maintain a decent standard of living. Boy was I wrong!!!

I paid my student loan debt, by myself with no help.

Have you ever read the classic Think & Grow Rich? Napoleon Hill talks a lot about how--no matter how well he did in the correspondence courses he took--the lesson he learned came from the persistence of the debt-collectors ... kinda showing 'the way "schooling" becomes "education"'---when pressure forces you to put your studies TO USE.

I went to CUNY YORK and QUEENS COLLEGE 1999-2005 I drove up about $30,000 in student loans and credit card debt. I got my BA in 2005 and at the time had a 503 FICO. Did a study abroad in Shanghai, China’s 复旦大学 #1. I was able to get a scholarship towards an MS so I took out a student loan to CONSOLIDATE MY STUDENT LOANS AND MY CREDIT CARD DEBT. That stopped the harassing phone calls and garnishments. #2. I started working at $50,000 a year and got a second job+ Youtubbing. I applied most extra cash directly to my debt. #3. Paid off my student loan by 2015. #4. Paid my second MS degree in cash out of pocket. Total was $18,000. I am 39 now with a 850 FICO and two houses. When I see what has become of student loans today - where a kid is literally coming out of a bachelors degree with more debt than I have ever accumulated in my entire life even when you add my first and second mortgage, it really upsets me. But fortunately, my war is over

i like this fam. i got out of school before all this nonsense started happening. my student loans were 24k after a master's degree (2004) in engineering and the interest rate was around 2%. soon after, i started hearing other folks having higher int rates and higher balances. i had no idea it was this deep. now im concerned for my kids ability to go to college.

Boycott expensive colleges.

The tuition for my local community college is $3,000 a year and for the State Universityin my city it is $11,000 a year

I used to work as a secretary in a NYC university nearly 20 years ago, and even then I saw this kind of thing happening all the time. The university graduated thousands of kids every semester with enormous debts and degrees that are worth nothing. Colleges know this, they know there are no jobs for these graduates, and they do it anyway. It is just greed. They don't care about the kids, because the college has their money. I also blame parents and anyone else who takes out these loans and pay these prices for useless college classes. Too many colleges all claim their degrees will give you a good job, but it is just a lie. This is the real lesson, never put out this kind of money if you have no way to pay it back. No degree is worth putting yourself in debt for life. Parents and young adults alike need to just stop paying the utterly ridiculous cost of colleges. Colleges keep raising prices because people keep paying----and they need to stop. No employer cares what degree you have, all they want to know is what your experience is. A degree is essentially worthless 20 years ago, and today. Just get a job, doing anything. At least you won't have a huge debt hanging over your head for life.

Yes. This means that even middle class students with good grades can have difficulty getting a good college education without accruing huge debt loads to pay back over their entire lifetimes. If you happen to be in any way outside the norm / majority, such as handicapped, minority, LGBTQ, immigrant, working-class, poor, anyone who might be just as deserving as those students from families with more money to put into their students' educations, then...how are you going to be able to afford a university education without taking on more debt than you can possibly repay in 10 to 20 to 30 years? Answer: Increasingly, many cannot. If we put a good education out of reach of deserving students, middle and working class, minority or majority, how do we expect our country to remain competitive and growing, for our own citizens, and attractive to other countries and businesses for trade or education or information-trading, investing, any of those useful things? How can we cheat the next great thinkers, inventors, creators, artists, scientists, engineers, out of an education and a foothold that could allow them to be the next great people to make everyone's lives better, world-wide? It is a terribly short-sighted thing. Every student with the grades and/or intelligence and drive needed to get a high school and university education (and community / junior college and continuing education) ought to be able to do so in a way that is affordable short-term and long-term. Everyone. Or we risk losing tens, hundreds, thousands of the next great people who could improve life for everyone. Just because some high school kid doesn't have enough money or their skin isn't as white as some people's does not mean they can't be that next person whose ideas brought to life could change the world for the better, permanently. We need every single talented person to be able to get that good education. They deserve it.

Can you do a vid on how your hair is different every single episode. Amazing.

Thanks for this episode. I will never be able to repay my student loans. The interest has added 13,000+ to my student loan debt. Even though I have paid more than 10,000 already it is now destroying my credit rating due to the fact that it is aging and not going down. I can only hope that someone will give us a new deal and wipe our debts out. Between my husband and I we owe enough to buy a house. It's financially impossible and very depressing.

Great job of explaining all that!

I just finished my first year in college, I owe $10,000 - $13,000, and I’m not even done yet.

Here in Brazil the University is public, but not for long. Thanks to our elected "monster". Is good to know more about US situation to we be able to fight these ideas.

The costs of university and the inevitability of student debt is why I seriously considered going abroad for my education. I still want to live abroad regardless, but the costs of schooling made the idea of going much sooner much more attractive.

Majority of youngsters I’ve met that why do they attend a university instead of community college. They always responded with only answer called the ‘college life “ experience thing and the university feeling...

This is great, very well done.

Very educational! thank you so much for sharing.

This is a sad situation but tax payer dollars shouldn't be used to fix it. That would only increase the cost of college for every other future student. There would be no incentive for colleges to decrease the cost of tuition and banks would find a way to increase their fees. Banks have already lobbied to get rid of Perkins, Stafford loans and many loan forgiveness programs. They could make the cost of borrowing cheaper or set fix percentage rates or make the interest rates expire after 7 or 10 years.