Mr Obama, stop the BS song and dance and do something REAL about the high cost of college. Here’s a link to a Whitehouse website article about how they care about making higher education more affordable and the tax credits they are giving or expanding to help make that happen. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Some measly tax credits aren’t enough to make a difference and they aren’t going to help me get a job after I get that overpriced degree.

Upping a Pell grant by $800 is going to help me pay for college? And what is the American Opportunity Tax Credit? Go read all the FAQ’s associated with it and tell me how that is going to really help me. More red tape I have to go through to get all or part of some tax credit for up to $2500 is NOT going to help!

College costs a hell of a lot and we have to pay with loans and our own money. I don’t need small tax credits from Obama and more empty rhetoric, I need him to get the costs DOWN. Most colleges cost $10,000 or more per year and those tax credits hardly make a dent. I NEED TO PAY LESS UPFRONT!

Maybe he can’t do much about private colleges but he can surely do something about state colleges. He can start by spending less money and not bankrupting this country. He can make getting colleges to lower their prices a priority and he can lead from the top. Of course that would be if he really cares and obviously he doesn’t.

Lots of college aged students helped Obama get elected because he gave them hope. Three years later all we see is record numbers of debt being piled up and a lot of excuses. We see Occupy Wall Street protests everywhere being led by our generation of pissed off 20 to 30 year olds who can’t get jobs even when they have a college degree. We need to see real change and not more BS posturing from the Whitehouse.

Today though, President Obama did outline some new guidelines that should make every college student happy and make paying their loans back a bit easier. His plan was supposed to begin in 2014 but due to the deteriorating economy and the dire need for help, students deserve this break sooner than later he said.

1) Starting in 2012 Obama’s plan will lower the student loan maximum payment from 15% to 10% of discretionary annual income. Another important change is that unpaid debt will be forgiven after 20 years instead of the 25 years that is currently on the books. These changes will make things financially easier on students who are struggling to pay off loans.

2) Also meant to financially aid students will be the new ability to consolidate loans from the Federal Family Education Load Program and any direct government loans into one loan. This will enable students who have both of these kinds of loans to get a lower overall interest rate, maybe as much as half a point better than before. Affecting millions of students who have loans, these new measures are meant to make college more affordable at a time when most everyone needs relief.

Of course none of this is going to help anyone get a job and that is also on the mind of most college students and recent graduates. College student jobs are in high demand and a very stressful subject for most young people. The American dream of going to college and graduating to find a good solid job waiting for them seems to be a dream of the past. With Unemployment rates approaching 10% and no indication that things are going to get better, today’s college students are in a very bad financial position, especially with the exorbitant tuition prices we now see everywhere.

It is also very possible that President Obama, by having these measures start in 2012 instead of 2014, is hoping to get more votes from students and younger people who might benefit from them. It is well known that he won his presidency with wide support from college students in 2008 and he surely wants that vote again next year.

Will these new student loan relief measures put forth today make you more likely to vote for Obama in 2012?

It is vital with today’s high costs that you get informed about all of your financial options: student scholarships, grants, and loans. But it is often confusing where to go to get that information. Some high schools and colleges are better than others at laying out where you need to go and what you have to do to get that much needed financial aid.

The video below asks a few questions about student loans and it shows that most students aren’t quite sure of the answers. It’s totally understandable if you don’t know because there are a TON of things to learn about loans and there’s even more to know about when it comes to scholarships and grants. But the more you know and understand, the more likely you are to be able to maximize your chances at getting the best financial aid package you can.

If you need one place that will educate you about the loan process and help you make the best choices, try Simple Tuition. They have an “A” rating from the BBB and there are all sorts of tools and resources that will help you analyze your situation and ultimately get you the best loan.

BTW, the answers to the questions in the video are:

1) You should get federal loans first because will often have better interest rates, repayment options, longer repayment periods, and/or easier credit requirements.

2) Subsidized loans = no interest until you start repaying the loan
Unsubsidized loans = interest is charged right from the start when you get your money.

3) A Stafford loan is a low interest federal loan for eligible students.

College students (and prospective ones) in 2011 have many difficult decisions and one of the most important ones is figuring out how much they can afford for schooling. Tuitions are at an all time high and that means a large percentage of students have to borrow money if they want to get that college degree. But aren’t student loans the good kind of debt?

When you are 18 to 21 years old you don’t have a lot of life experience. You don’t have experience with jobs, earning money, saving money, and anything else to do with money. That is why you are an easy target for credit card companies and loan officers. They want you to borrow money but you might not fully understand how hard it is to pay it back. You probably are too young to comprehend what being in debt is really like and how much it can hurt you and change your life.

You might be told that student loans are “good debt”, as though there is such a thing. You see, they will tell you that buying a $2,000 flat screen would be bad debt because that would be totally frivolous but borrowing $20,000 (or more) is an “investment” in your future and that is the good kind of debt. You might also be told that everyone gets loans and it is totally normal to graduate with debt.

Dont believe it.

Don’t be talked into and persuaded into things you don’t understand.

Don’t end up like this girl having to put up a website asking for donations because she is $200,000 in debt.

Don’t be fooled by the “good debt” argument. A college degree might be worthwhile and even important but you have to consider the price. At some point it costs to much and that number is different for each person. You see, we all are in different financial positions and we all will get different jobs that pay different amounts.

Are you going to become a doctor? Okay, you will need those degrees and you will have to (most likely) graduate with debt but hopefully you will be able to repay them because doctors make quite a bit of money.

Are you going to be a teacher? You will also need a degree but you better not graduate with too much debt because teachers don’t make a lot.

There are THOUSANDS of professions like teaching that don’t pay a whole lot and you need to figure out ways to get your degree (or don’t get one at all) without ending up in so much debt that it will take you 10 to 30 years to pay off.

You might have to start out at community college for the first two years to save money. You might have to live at home rather than in a dorm. You might have to go to a state college rather than a more expensive out of state one. Whatever you have to do, you need to realize that debt is NOT good and you want to graduate with as LITTLE of it as possible.

Don’t let people talk you into borrowing huge amounts of money to go to college because you will regret it later and then it will be too late. With college costing so much now, many students are making financial decisions that will impact them for years to come and many are going into so much debt that their lives will be adversely altered. Be smart about it and ask for advice from people you trust and who know what they are talking about. And when in doubt, sometimes it is better to hold off or do nothing.

College students today routinely are graduating with $50,000 to $100,000 in debt and sometimes a lot more if they have advanced degrees. What kind of job in today’s economy will you be able to make enough to pay that kind of money back? And that is if you can even get a job once you get out of school!

It gives a student a lot to think about. Just how much debt do you really want to saddle yourself with?

Trying to find jobs for college students is a given for most now days and they need one to have any chance of graduating and paying off the debt they are incurring. But there has to be other ways to save money and get a cheaper 4 year college degree.

Go To Community College First

What many students are doing is spending their first two years at a community college which is almost always cheaper than a private or state college. The prestige of a community college is definitely not as high but the good part is that you can transfer to a bigger 4 year college after two years and your degree will be from that bigger college.

Students are doing this purely to save money and sometimes the savings can be significant. Going to community college the first two years can save you a lot of money and since your degree will be from the more prestigious college you transfer to, no one will ever know in the end.

Of course you have to maintain high grades to be able to get into that college that you really want your degree from but many students are using this tactic to lessen their total college bill. It is something to give some consideration to.

Live At Home If You Can

Most college kids would rather move out of their parents house and live in a dorm, fraternity, sorority, or rent an apartment with friends. However, if the budget doesn’t really allow that and you will have to borrow more money to do it you should seriously consider living at home. You might not get the “full” college experience but if it lessons your debt at the end of four years it may be worth it.

In these difficult financial times, more and more students that can live at home are doing just that. You won’t feel out of place on any college campus if you live at home as everyone understands that cutting costs is vital to being able to graduate. The higher college tuitions get, the more students you will find are living at home while they go to school.

Twenty years ago college was still expensive but not anything like it is now. Kids then would be able to graduate, get a job, and most likely be able to pay off the loan in the next 5 years or so. Of course it depended on how big the loan was which was determined by the college you went to. The point is though, that most graduating students could get a job and expect to pay the loan off in a reasonable amount of time.

As a college student today, or one that is going to be, you need to be careful not get yourself in too deep with a loan. Remember, a student loan is different from a grant: it needs to be paid back in full and it is never going to go away. You need to figure out what type of degree you are going to be getting, what kind of job that will help you get, and how much that type of job will pay.

For instance, if you are going to be majoring in history, you should have an idea of what types of jobs history majors can get and how much they pay. If you are only going to be able to get a job out of college that pays $30,000, then is it smart to be borrowing $20,000 per school year for a four year degree? That answer is NO! College graduates today are often graduating with so much debt that it will take them 10 to 20 years to pay off, and that is if they can get a job.

Prospective doctors, lawyers, and other high paying professions have no choice other than to pay a lot for their degrees as they can’t get a job without one. But their earning potential is such that with a little luck they will be able to get out of debt in a reasonable period of time.

Students today are wanting to go college and some of the colleges are outrageously priced. You have to be smart and not graduate with more debt than you can handle. Remember, right now many college graduates can’t even find jobs and yet they still have those student loans to pay in addition to figuring out how to pay for a place to live and food to eat.

College aged students in 2010 – 2011 have bigger financial decisions to make right from the start than most students in the past have had. College should be a great place to learn, mature, make friends, and figure out what you want to do with your life. Right now though, college kids are saddled with big loans and often credit card debt all the while trying to find a part time or full time job. Kids today have a lot on their plates so be careful not to pile up too much debt that will only get you into more trouble.

Unfortunately, President Obama is not going to do anything to directly combat the problem like lowering those costs. Instead, he has just signed the new student loan bill that will give more government control to the bureaucrats in Washington D.C..

When in our nation’s 200+ year history has a good thing happened when the government took control? The post office is losing millions of dollars a year and thinking of doing away with Saturday deliveries to compete with it’s private sector competitors like FedEx and UPS. Social Security has long been bankrupt as there is more money going out to Baby Boomers than coming in. Additionally the politicians have “borrowed” all the money in the Social Security coffers to pay for their pet projects and there is nothing left. And then there is Medicare and Medicaid where any senior citizen will tell you it is hard to find doctors that will accept either of the two because they don’t pay the doctors enough.

Any reasonably smart person can realize that the government fails in most everything it takes on. So now we are going to have the new Obama student loans bill (which won’t change anything till 2014) that will take loans out of the private sector and put them under the jurisdiction of the federal government. He says the government can loan money to students at a lower rate than the banks and lending institutions do now.

But that would mean that the government is deciding who does and does not qualify for a student loan. Are we going to have quotas that have to be met? Is your child going to be denied a loan because of their skin color or because they come from parents who have too high an income? Is this the road we really want to go down?

There may be some good things that come out of this bill like the expansion of Pell grants and it will make student loans easier to repay in some cases. However, the real problem for most students is the ridiculously high cost of tuition, books, and room and board. It costs an arm and a leg to go to college and this bill does nothing to change that. It looks like the availability of jobs for college students will continue to be the determining factor of whether many students can afford to pay for a college degree. They need work during the school year and over the summers as well which means they need to be working year round. Whatever happened to those good years of young adults going to college and having fun learning and socializing? It looks like those times are gone for good.

One thing is for sure though and that is that college keeps getting more expensive every year! With that rise in costs, jobs become more and more important for students. These last couple years have been very hard on university students as jobs just haven’t been as plentiful as they have been in years past. Part time jobs for college students are what most would want but more and more are having to look for full time work.

With tuition costs so high, one of the options to help make payments is to work full time. This is of course if you can find a job in the first place. Working full time (or at least around 40 hours per week) is something that few college students have had to do in years past. Now though, it might be more of a necessity than a choice.

Working full time while you go to college is not the optimum situation because it leaves a student with too little time to study and have fun. Attending college is a full time job in itself and when you add on the stress and time constraints of a real full time job as well, you have a situation where the student might be stretching themselves too thin. With college costs so out of control though, many students don’t have any alternative other than to work as much as they can.

Jobs for college students should be part time jobs in a perfect world. The balance between classes, studying, having fun, and working part time gives a student the best environment to do well at all things. When you add in too much work you have to take away time from the other areas that are important too. Right now though, it is unfortunate that so many college students have to struggle daily to make ends meet. Working full time for these kids is something they have to do just to stay at school.

Well it seems things may have changed in the last 15 to 20 years as the cost of a good college (and all colleges) has gone through the roof. If you want to read a nightmare story about a girl with over $200,000 in college loans you can take a look at this article here.

The question must be asked at what point does a college education actually become counterproductive and actually a bad thing? That girl may never pay off those loans and she may be in debt for the rest of her life with a degree that won’t make her much money even if she does decide to pursue a job in that field. Being in debt is bad no matter what kind of debt it is and that is the problem with our economy and country right now: we are all in debt!

The reason jobs for college students are so hard to find is because the economy is crumbling. Our United States government is in more debt than ever before and it is effecting all facets of business with no end in sight.

President Obama has proposed taking the student loan system out of the hands of private industry and having all loans go through the government. His reasoning is that the government can give students a lower interest rate than private companies and thus make it easier for them to pay off their loans. However, that does nothing for the absolutely out of control prices of a college education nowadays.

Since when is worth it to pay upwards of $100,000 just to get a degree? All that money just to get a degree that you may never use and then be released into a world where there are no jobs? Students used to be able to get a college job and be able to work their way though college and pay everything off in a year or two. Now, if you can get a job in college, you are probably only covering room and board and not able to make any dent into the loan itself. That loan will have to wait until you graduate and get a job (if you can get one) and it may take ten, twenty, or even thirty years to pay off.

College costs HAVE to come down and they have to come down now. If we want to have the younger generations be competitive with the rest of the world, college has to be affordable. Right now it is no where near affordable and that has to change.