Two recent New York Times articles try mightily to elicit sympathy for borrowers whose bad financial decisions turned out badly.
"Your Money" columnist Ron Lieber asks us to feel the pain of Cortney Munna, a 26-year-old NYU graduate who owes $100,000 for "an interdisciplinary degree in religious and women's studies" that is not quite as lucrative as she expected.
Feel her pain? I laugh at her idiocy! Seriously. I laughed. Sure, I'd been drinking. But still--I laughed. A degree in religious and women's studies? Just what is that, anyway? At the price of 100,000 in student loans? Really? That seemed like a good idea?
And I say this as a friggin' history major. I had the brains, even as an undergraduate, to turn down almost all the offers of loans as financial aid. Sure, it meant I lived poorly and had to work, but I could actually use my mental powers to gaze into the future and understand that leaving college with a huge debt and a liberal arts degree was not--how shall I put this delicately?--smart.
So I went through undergraduate and graduate schools with much less than ten percent of her debt. And I only took on grad school debt because the Army National Guard said they'd pay that loan while I was in the Guard to get me to enlist. And I paid off all my loans.
So, hey, good luck with those student loan payments Ms. Munna. Really. It can't be any fun to have screwed up so early in adulthood. But hey, that's what you signed up for. May you work your way through this problem without stiffing the bank that trusted you would pay your debts.
Actually, I'm sure there are several high-paying positions in the Obama administration that she'd fill nicely.
UPDATE: Great minds think alike. Remember, I switched from computer science to history and political science, so I understand wanting to study what you truly like. But don't make the mistake that there are people out there waiting to employ you for what you love and give you a high salary for it.
