In the years since the Great Recession hit, millennials have become the poster children for student debt. Two Upper Valley residents shared their experiences.
Andrew Graham, 31, of White River Junction, holds a bachelor’s degree in community and international development from the University of Vermont and a master’s degree in environmental studies from Antioch University. He received both grants and loans and has about $60,000 in debt left to pay off. He just consolidated his undergraduate loans, which are all federal, and the interest is around 6 percent. He is currently in the process of applying for income-based repayment for those loans and also pays about $75 monthly for a private loan. He estimates he has paid off about $10,000 of his debt so far.
Graham served for 10 months in AmeriCorps’ National Civilian Community Corp., a disaster-based response team, and then a one-year term with AmeriCorps’ Vista program: “The skills I gained in my degree definitely served me,” he said. AmeriCorps participants also receive an education reward, part of which he used to pay off his loans, while the other went toward his graduate studies.
In retrospect, he wishes his mother had not taken out a ParentPlus Loan: “It was again, just something that was sort of promoted in my financial aid package that, not only could I take out thousands of dollars in loans, but my parents could, too.” Graham was unable to switch over the loan into his name, so he instead pays back his mother, now retired, monthly.
“I wasn’t totally oblivious to (the debt I was compiling), but it was just the way it’s done.” His older siblings went to liberal arts schools, paying for their education with loans and scholarships. “I knew I was going into debt, but it’s a social compact. If you go to college, then you go into debt, then you will have greater earning potential when you get out.” Conventional wisdom that jobs would be available after graduation proved wrong: Graham graduated in 2008 when the recession started. “I was lucky: I set myself up to do AmeriCorps and N-triple-C. I think a lot of my classmates were on the wrong end of that.”
Graham took a gap year between high school and college, and recommends others do the same. “I was able to travel because I didn’t have any debt.” He also held a minimum-wage job for a couple months “that really helped clarify that I wanted to go to college and it also gave me experience with minimum-wage workers’ world.” Working part-time while in college can be a huge help, he said. “I would recommend a pretty consistent job … and not relying on your loans for spending money and, if possible, your rent.” Taking advantage of income-based repayments plans make sense, he says, as do plans that forgive loans to those working for nonprofit organizations or the government. “I would recommend to students to research that program, especially if you think you’re going to go into a human services field. Make sure you set it up as soon as you start a job that is eligible.”
As a result of his debt, Graham has accepted governmental food assistance a couple of times. He felt “pressured into jobs so I could make the payments that I had to make.”
Graham is now working for a contractor.
“I am just now at 31 starting to really enter my career-oriented job, and I think a factor in that is I have had a lot of debt to deal with since I graduated from college.” Graham said
“It’s the highest hourly wage I’ve made at any job that I held. I’m really glad that I got the education I sought out… But I could have gone to work in a trade straight out of high school and started at this wage 10 years ago.”
Zachariah Ralph, 29, lives in Hartland and grew up in Woodstock. He earned dual bachelor’s degrees in French and political science from Loyola University in Maryland. He received a combination of grants and loans, which his mother, step-father and both grandfathers co-signed for him. He estimates he is $100,000 in debt and his monthly payments are about $700 . He has private loans, for which he is now paying back only the interest, and federal loans, which are being paid off through an income-based repayment plan. “I also make fixed payments on a loan that my grandfather bought using a home equity loan so that I could have an interest rate lower than 9 percent.”
“I was lucky and did find work in my field, but was only able to do this by also working as a cook, a server, or a wedding caterer at the same time.” Among the jobs he has worked: a bilingual interpreter for the National Park Service; vacuum cleaner salesman; commercial cod fisherman in Alaska; line chef; grassroots organizer. He now works as a program coordinator for Sustainable Woodstock, as an administrative assistant for the Hubbard Brook Research Foundation, and content developer for the Vermont Youth Action Network.
“I probably would not have gone to college if I’d known how much it actually costs and what the benefits are of having a degree vs. not having a degree. A bachelor’s degree doesn’t seem to have much more value today than a high school degree did.”
He now wishes he better understood what variable interest rates are — and avoided them. “I also wish that I had known what the difference was between federal and private loan carriers, and I would have tried to have done more to just get federal loans. I wish I had known that the number one job for political science majors was as a restaurant server before I started taking on so much student loan debt for this degree.”
He advises others to consider careers that don’t require degrees or to pursue careers through internships and apprenticeships. If a student feels the need to pursue a degree, he said, they should attend whichever school offers them the most money. “The institution that you get your bachelor’s degree from is irrelevant; no employers care. Prospective college students should also look into attending a community college before transferring to a four-year school. Basically do everything you can to get an education without getting yourself completely overwhelmed with student debt.”
His college debt has had a huge impact on his life. “Student debt has forced to me to work longer hours for jobs that I hated in the past. My student debt and the fear that comes along with knowing I owe the price of a house for an education which I rarely use causes me an extraordinary amount of stress. The busy and exhausting lifestyle that I’ve needed to live to pay off my loans has caused me a number of stress-related health maladies and extreme bouts of depression. The worst impact of student debt is that I don’t trust anyone anymore. My first lesson out of college about the real world was that everyone is after my money and that I am nothing more than a consumer to businesses, our government, and even our educational institutions. … I was just barely able to finance a car with a co-signer. So I am forced to live at home with my parents and pay rent instead of making payments toward a house that has value.”
