A agree that a large student loan is a heavy burden. But, like a car payment, it's a reasonably easy burden to avoid having. So it surprises me that so many people list it among their biggest problems.
A college degree is not something Americans think they can go without anymore. You get taught your whole life in the educational system that if you don't go to college you are going to be a failure. Degrees are so prevalent now that they are becoming the new high school diploma instead of a differentiator. In 2012 I was a year out of college, 4 years after the recession, and working at a call center that would only accept employees with a bachelor's and they had too many applicants.
Given how many jobs have moved to cities nowadays I wouldn't be surprised if it was easier to get by without a car than it would be to not have a degree, and this is in car centric America
But I got my B.S. in Computer Science in 2007 from my state's flagship state university, and graduated with no loans.
I got about a year's worth of classes out of the way at a community college before going to the real school. I guess my parents probably covered about 1/3 of my total tuition. The rest I covered by delivering a lot of pizzas.
Having to work at night while you're in school is inconvenient. But getting a degree from a public university without accruing a vast debt is far from impossible. Or at least is was in 2004 - 2007. Maybe things are different now?
I went to a state school and worked, epecially in the summer when I would pull OT every week it kinda covered rent for the most part and that was it. If I had worked enough to pay for tuition as well it would have gone past inconvenience and become close to impossible to accomplish while also maintaining grades. Going to community college first was a smart idea and I recommend it to anyone thinking about college, but at least when I was in the school system we were actively told not to endager our future and go to "real" school instead. We can't expect children, in significant numbers, to be able to see past the advice being given to them by their elders.
Ah you graduated in 2007, it did indeed change drastically after that. The next year the recession hit and schools everywhere had massive price hikes. My school saw a 12% hike in one year and the price went up almost as much every year after that. IIRC some state schools in California saw hikes near 30%. None of these hikes have been reversed and the price has just gotten worse and worse every year.
