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Kept Down by the Man

February 21, 2008, 11:47 pm

I think it's so cute when my fellow Princeton grads who pull down nearly a half million dollars a year complain about being put down by "the man."

Blaming your student debt on the structure of the economy when you chose to go to the most expensive school in the country is a bit like trying to get sympathy for the size of the note on your Lamborghini. 

By the way, lost in all this is the fact that Princeton is one of the two schools in the country that now help students graduate debt-free.  In most cases, Princeton has replaced student loans with outright grants. Somehow she kind of forgot to mention that Princeton solved this problem years ago, without even a whiff of government intervention. 

Tags: , ,
Category: Economics
  • http://comuse.blogspot.com Allen

    Soon they'll be complaining about the debt on their Saks card. ;)

  • stan

    Davidson has no student loans.

  • JimO

    I have a son in Harvard that actually got a couple thousand dollars back this year because his private scholarships plus Harvard's grants more than covered this year's expenses. 'Put down by the man', my butt. I worked summers, nights and weekends to pay for a crappy local college...the kids today should be thankful for the breaks they receive and take full advantage of the education offered.

  • http://permacarn.wordpress.com Adam

    Princeton is not the most expensive school in the country. Nor is Harvard. It doesn't even make the top 10 list of most expensive schools (Forbes). I am a recent graduate and I have very little reservation in saying that the high dollar amount of my student loans is a direct result of the current economic structure. As you know, all public state college tuition is subsidized by the state(thats why its more expensive for out of state students). Colleges are increasing tuition rates annually at an average of 6% per year. At the same time states, like Ohio, continually lower the rate of tuition subsidization. Now, student loan lenders like Sallie Mae (who work with the government to secure loans) say they are not able to continually support student loans without the direct involvement of the government. Private student loan lenders, like Citi and others, are completely withdrawing from this sector of the banking market because of unsustainability and losses. It seems to me that the current system in place that is designed to assist people who desire an education is not working. So much so that the government has already intervened and lowered interest rates on student loans. It's difficult to see how one can say that the current economic structure has nothing to do with the rising cost of education.