It is now college graduation season and I want to congratulate all those who have made it through to the end. Going to college is a beautiful thing if it’s your choice to go, so you deserve all the respect for going on the journey. But the way my student loans are set up you must control how much you invest in it in terms of affordability along with the quality of the school. When I initially began my journey to college, the school I really wanted to go to was out of state and was around $30,000+ per year as an out-of-state student. At that time my plan was to become a pediatrician, so I knew I needed to go to school beyond undergraduate studies so after some thought I removed going out of state from my mind and decided on only applying to state and local schools. I focused on 2 state schools that would allow me to live on campus and still have the college experience I wanted. With one school being desired more than the other, unfortunately I did not get into my first choice and was accepted into my second; I was still very excited and ready.
I majored in Biology and graduated in 4 years, and it was during this time the country was going through a small recession that lasted from about 2008 until 2011. My goal already changed to becoming an Occupational Therapist, so my plan was to work for a year and to take the last course I needed to apply. The problem with this plan was that during this time many of us graduates couldn’t find jobs that were at the level of a college graduate and/or related to our degree. Many worked in stores and other jobs that did not require a degree; I was lucky, my mother had a connection to a job for a few months before I was accepted into graduate school, at the state school I didn’t get into for undergraduate studies I must add.
Now after 3 years I completed my graduate studies and I had about $70,000+ in student loans with the bulk coming from getting my masters. Once I started working with and meeting people in my field almost all had student loans as well. Many who stayed local went to private institutions at a higher price tag, so many of their loans were well over $100,000. So, here we were making about the same amount as Occupational Therapist, but we had different prices to obtain our education. So, I thought about my path and how I originally wanted to go out of state to a $30,000 school without a scholarship, and I too would have amassed well over $100,000 in student loan debt.
So what I’m trying to explain here in my story is that it’s not always about where you came from in terms of what institution you went to college because in the end when you start your career, unless your company only recruits at the expensive top colleges, bosses do not look at what school you go to as much as they look at your experience, your recommendations, and credentials as is relates to the job itself. I’ve had undergraduate friends who went on to become doctors, lawyers, writers, etc. and we went to a state school that was not popular. My advice is to think about scholarships when getting into these expensive top schools because the student loan debt is not worth so much when you can get a similar education at a more affordable but good school. Plus, right now many of us with loans are hoping for the Supreme Court decision to agree with Biden’s plan to forgive some of our loan amounts.