Reply #15: there's nothing wrong with loans [View All]

[ant]

And I'm sure many kids will probably still take some out. The problem is that as tuition costs at private schools keep going up you've got kids straight out of college with lots of debt. Most people still question the value of a college education, and accumulating all that debt is certainly a factor in deciding whether or not college is worth it.

You've got to remember these are Ivy League schools we're talking about, too. I know from personal experience that that doesn't really mean much - I know complete idiots with Ivy degrees and total geniuses who went to state schools - but in certain professions the name on your degree is all that matters. Most people can probably already get a fairly decent college education for little money, but it's breaking into these high-falutin' institutions that's the issue here. When I was looking at grad schools I remember reading a study that talked about how all the professors at Ivy schools had gotten their PhDs from other Ivy schools. It's a very tight circle that has historically been open only to kids from the "right" families. It's really unAmerican, quite frankly, and I think what these schools are doing to make the opportunities offered by just their names more accessible to lower-income kids is wonderful.