College Debt Crisis

[sanantone]

I think there are usually two ways that students end up with a lot of student loan debt besides going to medical school or something similar:

1. Attend an expensive college that doesn't offer much loan-free aid.
2. Take out more loans than needed for tuition and fees in order to pay for living expenses.

One doesn't have to attend one of the Big 3 and/or take a bunch of CBEs in order to save money. Starting at a community college and then transferring to a state university can help save a lot of money. I couldn't get my sister to attend a community college. While the state university she is attending is not that bad at $8,000 a year, our local CCs are about $2,000 a year. She could have saved $12,000 by attending a CC for the first 2 years. Someone told her that there could be issues with transferring credits; the credits taken at a CC might not fit into a degree program at the university. However, there are counselors at CCs who specialize in helping students choose the right courses for the target college. There are also articulation agreements. Of course, in Texas, every public college is required to accept the whole core from another public college.