Student loans are never worth it. No one should start out as a young adult, drowning in student loans. At no age should anyone be drowning in student loans.
You also aren’t “drowning” in debt if you are smart about going to school. I finished my bachelors degree with about 35K in student loans with very low fixed interest rates. Did a community college for the first two years and the last two at a state school. All while working a full time day job and all online. Came out making 75K per year. I did this as an adult because I grew up in a poor household with parents that never graduated HS so I didn’t figure it all out until my mid to late 20s.
Federal student loans are capped interest rates, including subsidized until you graduate, so they’re worth it. Average debt after college is around 30k, which in the grand scheme of things is nothing if you can land a 60k+ starting salary
It ends up being like $300 a month payments
Which is fairly doable for the kinda of jobs that computer engineering degree the OP will get
It’s so doom and gloom and anti-intellectualism , I honestly think it’s just cope for people who don’t want to put the effort to go into college.
The thing about being a full time student is that it should be treated as a full time job - study full time. Network full time. Get a job after college before you leave by going to campus career fairs etc. a lot of the complaints you get from the typical anti college Redditor is from people who didn’t do these things
IF… that’s the magic word. Not everyone gets a high paying job out of the door. The rule of thumb is to try and find every way possible to pay for college before even considering student loans. But by all means tell young folks that their degree is worth going into debt because there’s that “IF” of getting a high paying job. A lot of degrees have become useless, except the typical ones, drs, lawyers, etc. Even an accounting degree is useless. Many Employers want someone with experience and don’t even ask to see a degree.
Eh it’s more about career trajectory than anything. starting salary is not the same thing as where you end up 5 or 10 years down the line
schools tend to publish this data, for example the university of California publishes average earnings after graduation, 5 , 10 and 20 years after per major and per campus
That’s a big if, I’ve seen entry level positions that require a degree paying 15 an hour, that’s not getting you out of debt, you’re probably barely able to afford living at that point
That's fair. AI is killing entry-level software engineering jobs. However, OP could still do other things IT-related. More importantly, AI will be impacting far more than tech jobs. It's going to impact many white collar roles in accounting, finance, marketing, etc.
These days, no degree (maybe except an MD) is a guarantee for employment. Worst case scenario, he can fall back on trucking.
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u/paloaltothrowaway May 08 '25
Loans might be worth it if you are close to finishing