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Degree in Women's Studies from NYU not enough to pay back student loans
Like many middle-class families, Cortney Munna and her mother began the college selection process with a grim determination. They would do whatever they could to get Cortney into the best possible college, and they maintained a blind faith that the investment would be worth it. Citibank gave Cortney Munna $40,000 in loans, though she had already amassed debt well into the five figures. It was like the "no doc" loans that home buyers used to get in over their heads. Today, however, Ms. Munna, a 26-year-old graduate of New York University, has nearly $100,000 in student loan debt from her four years in college, and affording the full monthly payments would be a struggle. For much of the time since her 2005 graduation, she's been enrolled in night school, which allows her to defer loan payments. This is not a long-term solution, because the interest on the loans continues to pile up. So in an eerie echo of the mortgage crisis, tens of thousands of people like Ms. Munna are facing a reckoning. They and their families made borrowing decisions based more on emotion than reason, much as subprime borrowers assumed the value of their houses would always go up. Note the NYT's angle: it isn't their fault. Ms. Munna does not want to walk away from her loans in the same way many mortgage holders are. It would be difficult in any event because federal bankruptcy law makes it nearly impossible to discharge student loan debts. Duh. Everyone knows that.
But perhaps the biggest share lies with colleges and universities because they have the most knowledge of the financial aid process. And I would argue that they had an obligation to counsel students like Ms. Munna, who got in too far over their heads. With liberals, it's never anyone's fault. Note that they don't mention which subject her degree was in until the very end of the article. No one forces borrowers to take out these loans, and Ms. Munna and her mother, Cathryn, have spent the years since her graduation trying to understand where they went wrong. Maybe it was women's studies? Strange the article makes no mention of this. How could her mother have let her run up that debt, and why didn't she try to make her daughter transfer to, say, the best school in the much cheaper state university system in New York? "All I could see was college, and a good college and how proud I was of her," Cathryn said. "All we needed to do was get this education and get the good job. This is the thing that eats away at me, the naivete on my part." Good job? What kind of good job would that be? With a women's studies degree from NYU? This is just bourgeois pretentiousness, "getting in to the best school". Why isn't the NYT coming down like a hammer on it? But what was Citi thinking, handing over $40,000 to an undergraduate who had already amassed debt well into the five figures? This was, in effect, a "no doc" or at least a "low doc" subprime mortgage loan. What was she thinking, borrowing money from a well-known loan shark? For a degree in which the only jobs are in academia? The financial aid office often has the best picture of what students like Ms. Munna are up against, because they see their families' financial situation splayed out on the federal financial aid form. So why didn't N.Y.U. tell Ms. Munna that she simply did not belong there once she'd passed, say, $60,000 in total debt? "Had somebody called me and said, 'Do you have a clue where this is all headed?', it would have been a slap in the face, but a slap in the face that I needed," said Cathryn Munna. BS, you would have slapped them with a lawsuit if they had dared question your career choices. That's not a role that the university wants to take on, though. "I think that would be completely inappropriate," said Randall Deike, the vice president of enrollment management for N.Y.U., who oversees admissions and financial aid. "Some families will do whatever it takes for their son or daughter to be not just at N.Y.U., but any first-choice college. I'm not sure that's always the best decision, but it's one that they really have to make themselves." Personal responsibility, surprise surprise. Cortney could move someplace cheaper than her current home city of San Francisco, but she worries about her job prospects, even with her N.Y.U. diploma. Then why the hell did she get one in the first place! She recently received a raise and now makes $22 an hour working for a photographer. There, see? You need a degree in wimmins studies to work for a photographer. Ev'ryone knows that ...
She may finally be earning enough to barely scrape by while still making the payments for the first time since she graduated, at least until interest rates rise and the payments on her loans with variable rates spiral up. And while her job requires her to work nights and weekends sometimes, she probably should find a flexible second job to try to bring in a few extra hundred dollars a month. Ms. Munna understands this tough love, buck up, buckle-down advice. But she also badly wants to call a do-over on the last decade. "I don't want to spend the rest of my life slaving away to pay for an education I got for four years and would happily give back," she said. "It feels wrong to me." Would happily give back? I rather doubt you would have accepted a position at State U rather than the prestigious NYU. You wanted the high-dollar degree in a useless discipline, and you got it. Now you say you want a do-over? Bull. Note how the NYT does not mention once the lack of jobs for women's studies graduates. It's all Citibank's fault, the university's fault, anyone's fault but hers. A man with a useless college degree can always drive a cab. What does a woman with a useless college degree do? Ask Cortney ...
Posted by: gromky 2010-05-30 |
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