The Enterprise of Brockton, Mass.
by Lindsey Pinkham
In her graduation photo, Meaghan Rodenbush will smile and proudly hold up her diploma from Stonehill College. But what won’t be seen in the photo is the heavy debt from student loans that Rodenbush will also be holding.
In her graduation photo, Meaghan Rodenbush will smile and proudly hold up her diploma from Stonehill College. But what won’t be seen in the photo is the heavy debt from student loans that Rodenbush will also be holding.
A political science and sociology major from Lakeville, Rodenbush will graduate from Stonehill College in 2010 and join a new wave of college students that are experiencing the highest amount of college debt in recent years.
“With the limited amount of financial aid that I have received through Stonehill, I have been forced to take an excessive amount of student loans out,” Rodenbush said.
The average debts of students graduating with loans rose from $18,796 in 2006 to $20,098 in 2007, according to the Project on Student Debt.
The average salary for a newly minted graduate, meanwhile, is $30,000.
Rodenbush will graduate from Stonehill with over $80,000 in debt.
She plans to attend law school after graduation but her debt will dictate where.
“I have enough merit to attend a prestigious law school, but my decision is probably going to be limited to what institution gives me the most money,” Rodenbush said.
The increasingly amount of students that are applying to graduate programs will face the same burden.
Andrew Miskinis, of Worcester, will graduate from Stonehill College this spring. He received a scholarship to Northeastern for graduate school.
"Without the scholarship, I wouldn't have been able to go. I would have moved home and just looked for work," Miskinis said.
Graduate and professional students borrow even more on top of their undergraduate debt, ranging from $26,000 for a Master’s degree program to $114,000 for medical school.
With the current economic crisis ongoing, these numbers are even more alarming.
Lauren Gifford, of Goffstown, New Hampshire, a sophomore at Stonehill College, had always planned on going to medical school to become a doctor. She has already changed her plans about graduate school because of the economy and excessive student loan debt.
“The debt I have already for student loans is just overwhelming,” Gifford said.
Gifford is looking to use her biology degree from Stonehill to get into a more affordable graduate school program like one for physical therapy.
“Being a doctor was my dream since middle school but I just can’t afford it,” Gifford said.
Chris Farrell, a personal finance advisor for Marketplace Money, a public radio program, says that it’s possible to invest in expensive graduate school education despite the current economy.
“Medical school students, law students, MBAs, MFAs, PhDs, future veterinarians and anyone else thinking about earning an advanced degree needs to weigh the income-in-the-future versus the debt-burden-to pay-down trade-off,” Farrell said in his online blog.
But prospective graduate program students shouldn’t be discouraged.
“It's smart to get more education and improve skills during an economic downturn. Hopefully, the economy will pick up before you get your professional credentials and get a job,” Farrell said.
Laura Nimon, of Gardiner, Maine, is a senior Healthcare Administration major at Stonehill. She will be working instead of going to graduate school to pay off her undergraduate loans after graduating in the spring.
“If I could go back, I would have saved more and looked for scholarships to take away some of the burden of student debt,” Nimon said.
Nimon will be graduating with over $40,000 in student loans.
“The reality of paying back all the debt just hits you broadside when you graduate,” Nimon said.
Luckily for Nimon, Healthcare Administration majors usually don’t have trouble finding work after graduating from Stonehill.
In a report released by Michigan State University, the top undergraduate majors in terms of pay in 2006 were chemical engineering and computer engineering, making an average starting salary of $55,000 and $54,000 respectively. Not far down the list were accounting and finance, both at $45,000.
Devan Hartung, a Stonehill freshman from Taunton, has already adjusted her post-graduation plans.
“I am going to have to try to get a job without going to grad school and I am hoping that the school I work at pays for my Master’s degree as an elementary education teacher,” Hartung said.
According to the Occupational Outlook Handbook, 72% of all U.S. companies offered some form of a tuition reimbursement program in 2003. 69% of those companies offered compensation for graduate studies.
Looking for an employer that will pay for graduate school is a smart decision but will only ease some of the pressure of student debt.
“I am going to have to probably live at home and work, maybe multiple jobs until I can get some of my undergraduate debt paid off,” Hartung said.
