I’m afraid I have to respectfully disagree with much of what you say here, as follows.
“The problem is most young people are simply lying about their debt for dramatic and sympathy reasons.”
I very much doubt that you’ve done a survey with enough statistics to make such a sweeping claim. I’d be shocked if indeed “most young people” would be found to have lied about their student loan debt. I would not be surprised if there are a few here and there. Much more likely is that the media concentrate on those cases in the minority where debt is extreme. I’ve personally coached several people with 6-figure student-loan debt.
“The average debt right now for a college graduate is slightly under $30k. Most public colleges right now are $10–15k per year, I know I just went back last year to finish off.”
If you’re talking about community colleges, possibly so. I can tell you that when my kids went to the University of Maryland, which is a public university, the full cost of attendance with in-state tuition was over $22k/year, and most kids don’t graduate in 4 years, so the total is usually above $100k for a college degree.
“Financial aid in grants are about $10k per year.”
That depends on whether you qualify for need-based grants. My youngest is in school right now and her merit-based grant is a lot less than that.
“You can go to community college for two to three years essentially for free, then go to a University for the last two years, even without a job at a public university and assuming no outside grants or scholarships, you can still get out under $10k in loans. That is without working at all living at home.”
This is mostly true, but in Maryland, community college is still about $22.6k for a degree assuming you complete your degree in 4 years, and with the average financial aid. If you take an extra year, which most students do, it’s probably closer to $34k. If you move to UMD after 2 years, your cost assuming graduation after a total of 5 years would be $93k (assuming 3 years at UMD).
“If you live off campus and do not work, you can still get away with living moderately for under $30k in debt.”
If you live off campus and don’t work, how much you need to borrow will depend on how much you saved ahead of time and how much your parents can support you. If we assume that those two total $30k (which is likely a vast over-estimate for most people since the majority of Americans can’t even come up with $1000 to cover an emergency cost without resorting to debt), you’d end up owing over $63k.
“While I agree there needs to be some serious education reform and costs should go down, the drama free reality is it is absolutely affordable, even with just a moderate amount of responsibility. Living frugally, with a part time job 20 hours a week, even at minimum wage, living with roommates or in dorms you can easily get by with almost no debt at all.”
The (higher-than-national) Maryland median household income is $83k, so $93k is more than a year’s worth of household income, which I’d hesitate to call affordable for most. Also, while I told my kids that I expect them to work at least 10 hours/week during school, working 20 hours/week would have interfered with their studies, which begs the question of why you’re paying so much if you’re not doing everything possible to get the most benefit from the education you’re buying.
At 10 hours/week during semesters and 40 hours/week during the summer break, and assuming $10/hour, a student can expect to earn about $9200/year. While that helps, it’s less than 10% of what they need to pay. This can reduce debt to a much more manageable $26k for the hypothetical scenario above, but it’s far from no debt at all.
“When I was entering college, debt was about $12k if I remember correct, with inflation, that amount is only about $5k more now than it was then.
Like I said, it certainly should be cheaper, but it is not at all life destroying. That is emotional nonsense. And if you can’t handle that, become a plumber. Since when is you being too good for a blue collar job my responsibility? Trades are great, fun jobs. I was a plumber and landscaper all through college. Nothing at all wrong with it. There is something wrong with the arguments on college, it is mostly based on a lie and nobody questions it.”
This is the one area I mostly agree with you (except for the part about “it’s all based on a lie”). There is absolutely nothing wrong with trade jobs, and if you prefer a career that requires a college degree, you (and your parents) need to do better to prepare yourselves for the financial realities of a college education, and avoid going to pricey private schools if you can’t afford the cost of attendance without taking on ruinous debt. However, financial literacy is in short supply in our society, among parents no less than among students.
