Re:Student Loan Debt Is Now as Big as the U.S. Junk Bond Market
by ultraluminous on Tuesday December 05, 2017 @04:33PM
(#15856229)
I coasted through five years of college ... Compared to a 9-5 job, yeah, college was a five year vacation.
If you went to college voluntarily and did not care about neither the monetary constraints nor the opportunity costs, then sure that's a vacation. I suspect pretty much anything can be framed as such under those circumstances. For most people, this is not actually a realistic option.
Re:Student Loan Debt Is Now as Big as the U.S. Junk Bond Market
by vkou on Tuesday December 05, 2017 @06:50PM
(#15857312)
No monetary constraints, because I borrowed from the bank of middle-class parents.
No opportunity costs because my earning potential after college was much higher then before. Not everyone can become a college dropout who founds a unicorn.
My situation is not unusual.
Re:Student Loan Debt Is Now as Big as the U.S. Junk Bond Market
by ultraluminous on Wednesday December 06, 2017 @12:02AM
(#15858672)
"the bank of middle-class parents" is not a real bank. It's your parents. You can pay them whenever (and you most likely never fully/really will, and that's ok). Your opportunity cost might be true and might be "I can't help support my family on a part time job".
Your situation might not be extremely rarefied, but I don't think you grasp the immensely insurmountable advantage you have in this scenario.
Compared to a 9-5 job, yeah, college was a five year vacation. There's no boss that will have nasty conversations with you, if your work isn't done, if you fall behind on assignments too much, you can just choose to not do them, and spend an extra hour or two cramming for the midterm + final. Nobody cares if you sleep through a class, or two, or seven.
... Obviously if you went to a difficult school, or don't have the social safety net of living with your parents, or you had to work full-time to pay for school, your experiences might be different.