(The following post is from an anonymous high school student)
Student loans . . . Really, what is it? For students still in high school they depend on their parents to pass on their college experience to help them, which is bad for kids whose parents didn’t go to college or just community college. From the vague view of a high school student, student loans seems like this inescapable thing that we pay off until we’re sixty so we can go to college. And then students who consider not going to college think their two options is 1) become the next Johnny Depp or 2) work at McDonalds for the rest of their life.
So the next best thing would be to try for a scholarship. Excuse me as I try to hold in my laughter. Getting a scholarship seems like having to be the best of the best; top student of the class or the MVP of whatever sports team. For the Ivy Leagues, they seem to favor the British sports like lacrosse or tennis, or just rich people in general. The possibility of a scholarship is more so mocked, which comes back to the point of a loan.
Student loans are like the last resort. No one likes being in debt, but somehow manage to get into debt anyway. Teenagers know they don’t make a lot of money, and so the prospect of having to pay off thousands of dollars is frightening. Also, they don’t want to be working all through college to have to pay off a student loan; they’d rather be doing the obvious of staying out late partying.
It would be a shame to think student loans are this big ominous cloud hanging around forever when it could really be a tool for a future success blah blah blah. And there aren’t many students that pay attention to student loans and the rise and fall of the economy to know if student loans are going to screw them over, or really help out. I’d rather not be handed a contract and be told “sign here” to find out what student loans really are so I think I speak for a lot of students when I say “Really, what is it?”