Obama and his government minions have doled out over $1.3 trillion to our yuuts so they could get educated. I bet you didn’t know that the funds aren’t all directed to the school for tuition and fees. The funds for books, rent, and living expenses are given directly to the student. How many responsible 18 to 21 year olds do you know. We already know that over 50% of the morons matriculating into college have 0% chance of graduating because they are dumber than a sack of hammers.
But they do know how to spend “found” money on iGadgets, HDTVs, booze, concerts, fast food, and they absolutely need to kick back on Spring Break after getting 3 D’s, a C in remedial maff, and an F in financial planning. It seems millions of these morons are spending their student loan money on a good time. They deserve it.
The best part is that Obama and his cronies wanted this to happen. The student loan scam was nothing but an artificial attempt to reduce unemployment and boost GDP. It’s been a huge success. Now that 40% of all student loans are in default, your government will come up with some asinine reason for writing off at least $500 billion. That means, you funded the spring breaks of these worthless pieces of shit. Happy Saturday suckers.
Can You Use Student Loans to Go on Spring Break?
The essential college experience requires all-nighters at the library and, to some, a keg stand or two and a less-than-lucid spring break vacation. And much like a degree, tequila shots and beachside hotels don’t come cheap.
About one in five American students graduating this year who carry debt said they used student loans to pay for such expenses as vacations, dining out, and entertainment, according to a poll1 conducted in early May by Google Consumer Surveys on behalf of Student Loan Hero. Undergraduates finishing college in 2014 owed an average of $28,950 in student debt, the result of loans taken out to cover both tuition and living expenses.
But when is it living, and when is it living it up?
Both private and public lenders first pay the university for tuition and, if applicable, dorm expenses. The remainder of the loan is doled out to the student, usually in a lump sum, said Mark Kantrowitz, the publisher of Cappex, a website that offers prospective students information about universities and scholarships, and a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Student Financial Aid.
“If someone is using it for something like going out on a date, to see a baseball game, it’s not a legal violation,” he said. “Once that money is in the student’s hand, there is no control to ensure that they’re spending it on textbooks, apartments, or food. There’s nothing to prevent them from buying an iPad, and technically an iPad might be OK.”
How about spring break, or a six-pack? Kantrowitz said it might violate the letter of the lending contract, but the student wouldn’t face repercussions.
A graduate of Texas A&M University-Commerce, Eric Hazard would receive a check of $4,000 to $5,000 after the lender paid the school for tuition. The checks “were celebrated across the campus as almost like a bonus for being a college kid,” he recalled. “[Students] would go directly to the bank to cash it. I bought electronics for my dorm room and drinks were on me for a month or two. In an abstract way, I knew I would have to pay it back. But you don’t have a timeline in your mind about what that was going to look like. I just knew it would happen later.”
To prevent students from blowing through the loan too quickly, Kantrowitz said, some schools offer alternative payout schedules, such as monthly distributions.
“We are moving to experiment to disburse funds over a longer a period of time, which might work for some students but not other students,” said Justin Draeger, president of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. “Schools are supportive of the ability to be flexible.”
Because most expenses come at the beginning of the semester, the slow-burn payout might prove impractical. Ultimately, the solution lies in further educating students about the purpose of their loans and in responsible money management, Draeger said, noting that students will inevitably make mistakes.
“To me, it’s not the proper use, but taxpayers aren’t necessarily being ripped off by a small number of students who are mismanaging their money,” Draeger said of students who use loans for vacations. “Federal loans and private education loans get repaid. I’m not saying it’s not a problem, but if we overreact to the problem, I’m not sure we create any real solutions. The whole idea of student aid is to get people who would otherwise not have attended into college. If we put too many barriers up, we squeeze out those at-risk, on-the-fringe students.”
For students dead set on a spring break blowout, or just a trip to Señor Frogs, the options are usually to take a part-time job, plead with relatives for spending money, swipe a credit card, or use a portion of the loan disbursement check. In the absence of a gig or a wealthy grandma, the kids are left to pick between two kinds of debt.
“If taking on a little bit extra in student loans means they get to live the life they want to live and be a happy person, then it can be worth it,” said Erik Almon, director of financial planning at the Society of Grown Ups, a Brookline, Mass., financial literacy group. Almon stressed that students should plan their post-graduation payback plan in detail and, if at all possible, refrain from taking on high-interest credit card debt.
“Using student loans is a smarter decision. It gives you more flexibility if you do find yourself stretched to make payments. There are a lot of payment plans that give you flexibility and help you get by after graduation,” he said.
As a senior, Almon was given a loan check of $1,500. He took a third of it and planned a spring break vacation.
“When I got out of school, those first couple years, working and paying down those student loans…it was kind of painful,” he said. “Even though I was making some sacrifices to pay that money back, I do not for one second regret that money I spent to go to Cancún.”
In America there is no such thing as “delayed gratification”. We like fast food, quick lubes, quick cash and instant rebates. Growing up I always cherished my birthday, got something special plus ice cream and cake, had to wait another year for a repeat. Not anymore, it is almost a constitutional right!
I already knew this. Have you noticed the proliferation of extremely swanky residence halls on college campuses in the past couple of decades? These places rival 4-star hotels in their level of amenity. The “rooms” are divided into cushy apartment suites, 2 or 3 bedrooms with their own living area and glossy, well-appointed bath and kitchen. The hall usually has its own indoor pool and gym. They’re a far cry from the spartan dormitories of the past, with their tiny, barren shared rooms and communal baths that served an entire floor of rooms. The cost of this glossy lifestyle is a huge add on to the already-stratospheric tuition charged by most private colleges.
Have a young relative who was living awfully large on her college loan money, and wracked up nearly $200K in debt. We warned her about compounding interest and the difficulty of making large loan payments with the pay of the typical first post-college job, but her ears were closed. But we had no power to stop her.
Thankfully, she is now as well-employed as she thought she would be and says she has no problem making her payments. She says her payments are small relative to her income. But she could have a higher standard of living now, and be saving more if she weren’t still paying for 8 years of self-indulgence and high living. And her case is exceptional- most of these people will be paying for the rest of their lives in drastically reduced standards of living and ongoing financial pain, while the rest of us will be paying in higher taxes, and public money will be diverted from essential infrastructure and other public needs, to paying for millions of kids to live in luxury while “studying” for degrees that have no value in the job market.
Chicago999444
What kind of first year job did she get? That’s a lot of smack to pay back “easily”.
Dollars are debts and debts make good slaves.
She’s an attorney who waited tables until she got a law job, and now has her own thriving practice, five years out.
The first couple of years out of school were difficult, but, to her credit, she is very good at cutting expenses and budgeting when she is motivated to do so. She shared her apartment, and she’s not big on buying clothes and gadgets in any case. Now that she has her footing and is doing well, the payments are very easy, especially since she lives modestly. The payments are less than $1,000 a month and she is religious about paying on time and making double sure her payments are credited properly.
Chickens will come home to roost soon enough. Reset is coming and we will get what we deserve. You cannot break the laws of physics.