At the time of graduation...how much did you owe? How long did it take you to pay it off? If less than $10,000...how so?

I graduated in 1997 and owed $1200 from my one semester at Wilmington College...my graduation gift was that $1200 being paid for by my parents.

I had a $3500 scholarship while at Wilmington and another local one for $2000....lost them both with my transfer. I worked 5-midnight at McDonalds 5x a week during the school year and in the summers worked 40 hours a week as summer help for the county highway department (asphalt work behind paver), umpired little league baseball 3-4 nights a week, mowed 4 yards weekly and did an 8 hour shift at McDonalds on Saturday....I paid for nearly every penny of my college from those jobs sans the $1200 (must note I had a baby/toddler the last two years...no clue how we managed)

About 90k. Have 70k left. Lay about $700/mo. Fucking sucks.

Owed around $74k when I graduated. Down to about $44k now 9 years later. I made it a priority after graduation to pay it down fast but fell away from that with getting a car and a house, plus wanting to enjoy life, but now it pisses me off every time I look at it so I am paying extra each month and have cut down on extra expenses as much as I can.

I was at about $25k. Took out some stocks and sold my car (somehow got 3k for it...which I put to loans instead of my new car). Down to $3,200. They suck, but thankful for my grandparents money they out in the market for me growing up and my dad taking care of a few years of school for me.

I paid as I went for the most part. I wasn't 100% sure what I wanted to do so I tried a couple of different majors, went to school part time, sometimes at Columbus State and sometimes (mostly) at Ohio State. I didn't want to go in debt when I had no clue what I wanted to study. It took me 8 years to get my bachelors and I think I had around $6k in debt.

Also I want to add that I was under the impression my parents were going to pay for my college. Not sure how because they were poor af but I don't think you think about that when you're 17. My dad was retired military and his solution was that I should join the army. I don't like being yelled at, told what to do by idiots or to get up early. I was not interested and he was not pleased.

FatHobbit;1844887 wrote:Also I want to add that I was under the impression my parents were going to pay for my college. Not sure how because they were poor af but I don't think you think about that when you're 17. My dad was retired military and his solution was that I should join the army. I don't like being yelled at, told what to do by idiots or to get up early. I was not interested and he was not pleased.

My parents told my six siblings and me in 6th grade that they were not paying for us to go college. Obviously I got the hint even earlier since I had three older brothers, but they were very clear. Get good grades, be great at a sport, join the military or pay for your education.

Fab4Runner;1844888 wrote:My parents told my six siblings and me in 6th grade that they were not paying for us to go college. Obviously I got the hint even earlier since I had three older brothers, but they were very clear. Get good grades, be great at a sport, join the military or pay for your education.

I think that's completely fair. But I was a little unmotivated in school and they were always "you're going to college. You're going to college. You're going to college" so I was kind of surprised when I decided to go to college and my dad was like "great go join the army"

I was also kind of a dumb ass. Between my Sr year of high school and my freshman year of college I found a 1966 Mustang fastback that I loved and I wanted to spend my money on that instead of college. My mom wouldn't let me and at first I was angry. Lol lucky for me she was smarter than I was.

after the military medical retire, honorable discharge paper was final 1971, because of a freak accident at Bowling Green and a Dr. Regulus (sp) he arrangement for me to get a college education. four years and three summer I graduated with zero dept. GI Bill.

I worked while going through college. Had financial aid & academic scholarships. Probably owed less than $7k when I got out. Paid it off within a year.

Back to the topic at hand...I am not sure how much I graduated with, but I owe about $20k right now. My husband graduated law school with about $90k. He pays the bare minimum because his job means he will qualify for student loan forgiveness in the future.

I walked out of Marietta oweing just shy of $34,000. Paid it off in about 30 months. I had several scholarships after my freshman year (petroleum engineer merit scholarships and work study things) if not for that, WOW, I owed 17K after the first year of school. Side note, one of my best friends from MC died in 2011 so I pooled some money with a few other buddies and started a scholarship with his name so I still give to the school pretty regular because of that.

My wife got an associates degree but paid nothing for it (she was a definite academic rock star and got a bunch of scholarships) that helped me to be able to knock my loans out so quick.

Owed nothing when I graduated. Was in a co-op program and alternated working one semester on and one off. Told my kids I would pay 50% of their costs. My daughter is a junior in college now and works in the summer at the Cleveland Clinic putting almost all of it towards her costs. She should come out well I think but she's looking at grad schools now which will change things a bit for her. My son is in a military academy and will owe nothing.

I left Marietta with $24,000 in 2006 and I am still paying it off. I think I signed up for a stupid term length so my payments are super low each month ($168) and I haven't tried to pay it down quicker. Now that we'll be clearing out some other debt I'd like to pay off the remaining balance in the next two years.

I ended up with no debt, primarily because I stayed at home during that time. Got a scholarship which paid for the first full year, and then I paid for the rest on my own each quarter by working 20 hours a week during the school year and 60 hours a week during summer break.

My sister got a good deal, got her bachelor's in business 95% paid for by Dept of Defense, working at the Cols Supply Center. Took her about 8 years, one or two courses at a time in the evening, and the classrooms were right there at her installation. I think she told me she had to pay for about 3 of the classes because they weren't covered by the reimbursement.

Graduated with $30k in debt. Two-thirds of that was from my freshman year at an Ivy league school which was not for me. Transferred to a state school the following 3 years and had some academic and athletic scholarships.

Took about 10 years to pay off.

Did not have any debt for my MBA and Supply Chain Master's degrees as my employer paid for those.

Zero debt, but of course I graduated well before college costs began to skyrocket at rates 3 times faster than inflation – ridiculous; plus I worked all the way through to pay for over half the cost.

My wife had around $28,000 dept out of college but he first job was some sort of Rural Action deal that only paid like $14,000 a year but after two years they paid off her loans....so it worked out.

I believe total was around 42k. I have 20 left. Refinanced to make my payment very low, no fucks given.

$130,000

I had a full-ride through undergrad that carried into part of pharmacy school. Worked about 20 hours a week but that money was used for other things. Not sure how long it will take me to pay off, but since I work for a non-profit hospital the government currently says they will forgive any remaining loans after 10 years of payment.

Double that number if my wife's loans count.

QuakerOats;1844935 wrote:Zero debt, but of course I graduated well before college costs began to skyrocket at rates 3 times faster than inflation – ridiculous; plus I worked all the way through to pay for over half the cost.

This was me. Started in the late 80's and graduated in 1991. The costs today are friggin' ridiculous.

I think I had around $75,000 from undergrad. Didn't get a full-time job until 5 years after to start really paying towards it. Will be checking soon to see my current balance, been paying above minimum though. It took 5 years because I went to graduate school twice, which didn't cost me anything for an M.Ed. and an MBA.

Never made tons of money, but I enjoy what I do. Wouldn't really change anything, maybe work more in undergrad and graduate school. But, if I worked more, I probably would have missed out on bettering my career how I did.

None, undergrad was back in the affordable days (late 70s) and my employer paid for my MBA.

I was a jock with decent grades. Zero debt to school.

Fab4Runner;1844888 wrote:My parents told my six siblings and me in 6th grade that they were not paying for us to go college. Obviously I got the hint even earlier since I had three older brothers, but they were very clear. Get good grades, be great at a sport, join the military or pay for your education.

I honestly really like this approach. Gives more value to their education. Couple things I will push:

- Don't go to college for a shit ass degree
- Only go to college if you want to work in a field that requires a degree
- Don't discount a 2-year school for an associates before pursuing further degrees
- Don't, I repeat, DO NOT go into education.