Long story short, there are a lot of expenses when it comes to college, and students might not be well-equipped to handle them. Baylor has resources for financial aid and counseling; however, it’s still vital to understand what costs you or your family are paying and how they can impact you in the long run.
Browsing: Debt
Why is a lack of personal finance skills such a common theme among college students? One of my co-workers is $800 in credit card debt. I have overheard two of my classmates joke about how they had less than $5 in their checking accounts. Even my 22-year-old brother didn’t know how to make or maintain a budget until just a few months ago, despite living independently. College-aged students need to prioritize personal finance to establish foundational financial literacy skills that can set them up for a successful future post-graduation.
Many college graduates have high expectations for a job right out of college. The reality is, many of those expectations won’t be met.
“In today’s economy, recent college graduates are taking the first job that offers a paycheck – not necessarily the job their college education prepared them for,” said Baylor graduate Kevin Blair.
“The current job market has forced people to find refuge in a collegiate setting, only to accumulate debt that must be paid off,” said Arlington sophomore Kacie Evans.
Students attend college to learn, however in almost half of the country’s colleges, they are kept in the dark instead.
Since most colleges elect to keep student debt information private, there is no set national requirement. However, the national average student-load debt is increasing. In many cases, this leaves third-party watchdogs such as The Institute for College Access and Success (TICAS) to fill the gap. Colleges provide a common data set that these organizations use to gather their statistics.
I recently read an article in the Onion called “Company Immediately Calls Job Applicant Upon Seeing ‘B.A. In Communications’ On Resumé.”
It was satire, of course, but for a moment, I indulged in the fantasy that it could happen to me: My potential employer would hire me based on my sparkling GPA, the line on my resumé that mentions I was a student in the Honors College, or just the plain and simple fact that I had a degree at all, proving I can suffer utter sleeplessness for four years straight.
The average credit card debt per household in the United States is $15,788. The U.S. has a revolving debt of $852.6 billion as of March 2010, about 90 percent of which is composed of credit card debt. The average age a person obtains a credit card is 20.8 years.