What was your financial status when you graduated college

[noblegas]

Hope this question is not too personal; I just like to get a good idea on what my financial status is relative to the financial status of other college graduates or soon to be graduates like myself

 

[negitron]

Broke and in debt. The good news is that the higher your degree, the broker and more in debt you're likely to be. Congratulations.

 

[Topher925]

When I got my BS I had zero debt and about 10 grand in the bank.

 

[Cyrus]

When I got my BS I had zero debt and about 10 grand in the bank.

Same here.

 

[Pengwuino]

When I got my BS I had zero debt and about 10 grand in the bank.

Ditto. I'll probably end up with my MS and even more in the bank.

 

[lisab]

I had a modest amount of debt and assets in the neighborhood of $2000.

I've always been extremely wary of debt...I chose to go to college part-time and work part-time so that I would not incur excessive debts. Don't know how helpful my answer is since I'm probably atypical.

 

[Pengwuino]

Thank God for state schools :). I'm amazed how one of my friends is making SUCH a stink about tuition increases when we still pay 10-20% of most private universities.

Plus his parents pay for his tuition.

 

[Astronuc]

I left grad school with about $5-6K. While in grad school, my wife and I bought a new car (Honda Civic Wagon for about 10K), and we paid off her undergrad loans, and saved for a down payment on a house.

I had paid my way through my undergrad program, and I helped my parents support my siblings in their university programs.

My parents subsequently gave me a few $K toward a downpayment on a house.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Although I had been able to pay my way through undergraduate studies, I was not able to pay for my first semester as a grad student and had to borrow from my mother. It was humiliating because I thought I had been weaned. For my second semester in grad school, I got a fellowship and was able to pay my way again and within a few more semesters paid my mother back.

 

[SticksandStones]

I'll probably be around $60,000 in debt after I get my B.Sc, and then tack on another $100,000 or so if I end up going to law or pharmacy school.

 

[Vanadium 50]

I graduated college about $9K in debt, and grad school about $7k in debt, $7k in the bank, and a paid-off car.

 

[Cyrus]

I'll probably be around $60,000 in debt after I get my B.Sc, and then tack on another $100,000 or so if I end up going to law or pharmacy school.

That is disgusting amount of debt for a BS. Did you go to Harvard? I hope so for that price.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I chose to go to college part-time and work part-time so that I would not incur excessive debts. Don't know how helpful my answer is since I'm probably atypical.

I went full time and part time while working part time of full time. Since I went back to school a bit late in life, my situation was different than a typical college student. For one, we moved to Oregon and bought a house right in the middle of the program.

Some of my tuition went on credit cards but we didn't bury ourselves; not by today's standards. However, the cost of tuition was climbing quickly by the time I finished.

For me the far more substantial number was lost income, rather than debt. I had a successful career before returning to college. All in all, going to college probably cost me well over 200K, plus tuition and books. Moving to Oregon probably set us back another 100-200K, but that depends on how you look at it. We bought a five acre lot in the woods that would probably be worth millions anywhere within commuting distance of L.A.

P.S. No regrets. I wouldn't want to do it all again, but it was worth it. I would have liked to have gone on to a graduate program, but that would have been too much to handle financially. By the time I finished, we needed to concentrate on making money.

 

[Sorry!]

That is disgusting amount of debt for a BS. Did you go to Harvard? I hope so for that price.

Agreed. If I paid that amount of money I wouldn't even want to attend the school. I would just be expecting my degree to come in the mail. :D

I haven't gone to university yet but I'm planning to next year after 4 years I PLAN to have no debt. Universities in Ontario have a lot of excellent scholarship opportunities and the provincial government pays for you to go while you're in school. You only need to pay them once your done. (normally its not the full amount though. I think I don't have to pay back 1 grand every year)

 

[Dr Transport]

about $3K in debt after my Bachelors and 1st Masters. I paid everything off over the next couple of years and when I got my PhD i was in about $10K. I was deployed for the war, so I paid everything back and was completely out of debt except for my mortgage within 18 months.

 

[Monocles]

I'll be graduating from undergrad with about $60k in debt as well. Even though I am a U.S. citizen, I was not eligible for in-state tuition in any state since I moved so often, and also my parents made too much money for me to get any assistance. So, I have financed my education primarily through loans.

 

[noblegas]

That is disgusting amount of debt for a BS. Did you go to Harvard? I hope so for that price.

Unless you receive any scholarship or your parents paid for all of your college amenities , I cannot imagine someone graduating from harvard with only $60,000 of debt seeing that it cost a student about $60000/year to attend that school

 

[turbo]

I left college before graduating, and then went back a couple of years later to take some courses related to my work as a soils scientist in construction. Anyway, for the first three full years, I ended each year with a little more money in the bank than the previous year. I worked full-time each summer (construction or mill-work) with all the overtime I could get. Every school year, I played guitar in a band and made spending money from frat parties, mixers, etc. I also bought and sold guitars and amps on the side, and repaired and refurbished them. Lots of college kids sell off nice instruments cheap when they get hard-up for cash, so I did quite well with my little side-line. The trick is to be liquid (always have several hundred bucks in your pocket) for when opportunities present themselves, and understand the market well enough to estimate your profits accurately. I never borrowed a dime for college - state universities are a pretty good deal.

 

[SticksandStones]

That is disgusting amount of debt for a BS. Did you go to Harvard? I hope so for that price.

Nope, in fact I had to go to a lower tier state school because they offered me more scholarships than higher tier schools. It's also not like I did bad in high school. In fact, I was literally the top student in high school.

The ironic thing is, since my parents make so little money if I did go to Harvard I'd probably have less debt.

 

[Danger]

College? What's that?
I never graduated high-school, but at least I was debt-free when I didn't.

 

[Cyrus]

Unless you receive any scholarship or your parents paid for all of your college amenities , I cannot imagine someone graduating from harvard with only $60,000 of debt seeing that it cost a student about $60000/year to attend that school

You're right, I forgot how disgustingly expensive it is to attend that place.

 

[LBloom]

I'm on track to be $22,000 in debt by the time i get my B.S. (unless i get more grants or scholarships. Keeping my fingers crossed). Not sure how I'll pay for grad school.

I don't want to hijack this thread or anything, but does anybody think freshman year is too early for a job or should I wait a year? Don't like the idea of being in so much debt and then worrying about my PhD

 

[0xDEADBEEF]

Why would anyone be in dept after college when everything is paid for by the government?
Go Europe! Go Europe!

 

[Quincy]

I'm on track to be $22,000 in debt by the time i get my B.S. (unless i get more grants or scholarships. Keeping my fingers crossed). Not sure how I'll pay for grad school.

Same here except w/ $25,000.

 

[WhoWee]

My wife and I both emerged debt free as undergrads. However, she needed to complete almost a year of free service and an additional year of part time status. When she went back for her Masters (Education), we accumulated an extra $35,000 in loans - plus the lost income because she wasn't teaching.

 

[brewnog]

When I got my BEng I suppose I had around £12,000 debt.

 

[Moonbear]

When I graduated college, I had no debt, but also very little left in savings...a couple thousand. Worked for a year before starting grad school, and when I left grad school, still no debt and about $15,000 in savings. But, that's mostly because I only had to pay a very small rent in summers to live in dorms, and then rented an apartment only my last year of grad school when I needed a quiet place to focus on writing my dissertation. The rest of the time, I had a fellowship that provided free room and board during the academic year to live in dorms and be a mentor to undergrads. I still bought food for myself, because it gets harder to live on dining hall food after a while. And, I had my tuition and fees waived on a teaching assistantship. I think the only question I really have is why didn't I manage to save more when I had so few expenses (I did buy a new car during that time because my old one finally was falling apart), and definitely no time to spend money. I think I used a lot of it for take-out and eating out.

 

[jtbell]

My parents put me through college for my bachelor's degree, so I had no debt when I finished that and started grad school. This was in 1975, when it was easier for parents to pay for college for their kids, even if they didn't have white-collar jobs. My father was a fireman and my mother worked part-time as a school secretary, but they were very careful with money because they both grew up during the Great Depression, so they had money for things that they felt were really necessary, like building a new house when I was a kid (they paid the contractors in cash as construction proceeded), and my education. And when my father retired a couple of years after I started grad school, they paid cash for a modest co-op apartment in Florida.

Obviously, the cost of a college/university education in the USA has risen a lot more than typical salaries in the 34 years since I graduated from college. When I compare the facilities at the college where I teach now with the rather similar college that I attended in the early 1970s, I can easily see where some of that extra money goes.

Then: double-occupancy dorm rooms with a communal bathroom down the hall. Now: suites with one shared semi-private bath for two private bedrooms. (During my freshman year, I lived in a room with pull-out beds that served as sofas during the day and as beds at night!)

Then: one or two telephones in the hall on each dormitory floor, and a TV set in the dorm lounge hooked up to an antenna on the roof. Now: individual phone, cable TV and internet connections in each room.

Then: cafeteria-style dining halls where everybody went through a single serving line, and maybe had a choice of two different entrees on any given day, with "mystery meat" making a frequent appearance. Now: setups like a food court at a shopping mall, with stations for deli sandwiches, burgers, pizza, "international" fare, a traditional entree, and a dessert bar.

Then: fitness facilities consisted of a swimming pool, gymnasium and a running track around the football field. Now: all of the above plus an exercise room with treadmills and other exercise equipment, and maybe a rock-climbing wall.

Then: relatively recently-built academic buildings, dormitories, etc. had simple functional designs with painted concrete-block walls, painted metal doors and trim, linoleum floors, little wasted space, and overhead fluorescent lighting. Now: new buildings have spacious atriums, recessed lighting, plaster walls, tile or carpeted floors, and dark wood trim.

When I was in college, I didn't deal much with the administration, so I can't really compare it with what we have here. But even in the 24 years I've been here, there have been major increases in administrative staff, much more than the increase in the student population or the faculty. For a while, about 10-20 years ago, it seemed that every time someone in the administration retired, we hired two or three people to replace him (or her).

During grad school, I didn't take on any debt, either, because I was able to live on my stipend, first as a teaching assistant and later as a research assistant while I was working on my dissertation. It helped that I stayed single (didn't marry until after I had a "real job"), shared an apartment, and didn't own a car until about a year before I finished grad school.

 

[S_Happens]

I ended up with right at 25k in debt, which I paid off in two years. My wife had zero debt, and we got married and built a house within a year of graduating.

 

[Moonbear]

Now: suites with one shared semi-private bath for two private bedrooms.

I see things like this all over. The apartments students live in look like the sort of luxury condos that young professionals would drool over if even they could afford them. They have one apartment complex here, in particular, that has a pool and clubhouse with regularly held parties complete with a DJ, a full fitness center, a spa, even a tanning salon! The apartments are 2 to 4 bedrooms with one or two shared bathrooms. Students pay about $600/month EACH. I don't know how a student can look at an apartment that is pretty much charging $1200/month for a 2 bedroom unit and think that is affordable for student housing. So, yeah, it's no wonder they leave in debt even while working all through college (our tuition is still pretty cheap here...a full-time summer job and a part-time job through the academic year would more than cover tuition and books). When I was a student, even for those who lived off-campus, they'd be hunting for apartments where you'd spend $600 on a two bedroom place, and then fit three students into it by setting one up in the living room. And, yes, most of us still lived in dorms shared by two students. When there were too many students to fit in the dorms, the large study room on each floor got converted into a sleeping room too, and they'd fit about 6 bunk beds in there to handle overflow (once some people dropped out, they'd reshuffle those people into regular rooms and give us the lounges back).