As discussed on this website in a number of prior articles, student loans were a huge millstone around my neck for much of my 20s. I felt horrible about my student loans and I thought about my debt pretty much every day. I almost thought that I had done something wrong or made bad decisions to have such a student loan burden, and I felt that I had gotten myself into a difficult financial situation through bad choices. In addition, since many of my friends did not discuss student loans, I felt like I was the only one who had this burden. However, you shouldn’t feel bad about student loans for a variety of reasons.
Misleading Employment Data
One reason why you shouldn’t feel bad about student loans is because many people were given faulty information when deciding to enter educational programs. Years ago, and even in the present day, many educational programs (especially law schools) artificially boosted their employment data and other educational statistics. For instance, many law schools conveyed that the average starting salary of recent graduates was extremely high, and that a large percentage of recent graduates were able to secure gainful employment shortly after graduation.
However, many programs “juiced” their numbers. For instance, some schools had poor responsiveness to employment surveys, so only a small number of recent graduates reported their data. In some instances, the individuals who did report their data had good employment outcomes, so employment statistics did not provide an accurate picture of how recent graduates were doing in the job market.
Moreover, some law schools considered recent graduates “employed” if they had any kind of job, not even if it was a job that required a law degree. Due to all of these possible misrepresentations, a number of lawsuits have been filed against law schools by students who claim that they were deceived into matriculating into certain schools and now cannot deal with their student loans. Because some educational programs basically misrepresented employment data to entice students to enroll in a program and borrow tons of student loans, you shouldn’t feel bad about student loans in many circumstances.
Rising Educational Costs
Another reason why you shouldn’t feel bad about student loans is because educational costs have risen precipitously over the past few decades. Many years ago, educational costs were pretty reasonable. I am sure that most of us have heard stories from older people in their families about how they paid for their schooling for an absurdly low sum of money, and they may have been able to work a job to cover the cost of attending school.
Of course, the prices for all kinds of things were lower many years ago than they are today, and individuals may think that when accounting for inflation, the cost of attending school in the past is roughly the same as it is today. This is not the case. Indeed, college costs have increased greater than the cost of inflation for decades, which has burdened recent generations of students. Indeed, it is nearly impossible to work a job to finance the cost of attending college in the present, since educational expenses far exceed what someone could earn at a reasonable job as a student.
As a result, current students should not feel as if they did something wrong to be burdened with student loans when prior generations had been able to avoid borrowing debt to attend school. Students decades ago had to pay far less in relative terms to attend school, and current students should know that their situation and the circumstances of anyone they know who worked their way through school years ago are completely different.
You’re Not the Only One
Another reason why you shouldn’t feel bad about student loans is because many other people face similar student debt burdens as you, including many people who may be close to you. While repaying student loans, it is easy to think that you are the only person you know who has massive amounts of student loans. Indeed, when I was repaying student loans, I did not feel like any of my peers had a massive student debt burden like me, outside of my own family. People do not like to discuss student loans, so it can be difficult for individuals to hear about the experiences of others and commiserate about their shared student loans experiences.
However, there are likely millions of people across the country who have a similar situation as you. In addition, many of your classmates, colleagues, and friends are likely also dealing with their own student debt burdens, since not everyone is fortunate enough to have scholarship money or parents fully finance their educational expenses. As a result, you shouldn’t feel bad about student loans by thinking you are the only one dealing with this burden. If anyone ever wants to commiserate about student debt and hear about how they are not alone and how millions of other people are also contending with student loans, do not hesitate to reach out to me.
In the end, you shouldn’t feel bad about student loans, and student debt should not put a damper on your life. Many people did nothing wrong when they borrowed student debt, and a variety of factors make it extremely difficult to earn certain educational credentials without taking out massive sums of student loans.