Tuition is Crazy But Can We Also Talk About How Some Student Loans Paid for Cruises?

by Amy Renwick

I graduated from Iowa State in 2008 with a degree in English Education and no debt.

I was raised in a lower-middle class household by two public school employees who valued education. From early on in my childhood they put money in a government-supported college savings plan. It wouldn’t be enough to cover everything, they told me, but if played my cards right, I could graduate from college debt-free.

It was a worthy challenge, and I took it on. I started my higher education at a community college, frowned upon since I was a “good” student, but it was cheap. I eventually transferred to a four-year in-state university, and once I was there, I took the max course load so I could graduate on time.

The direction I went in was not the “fun” route. It involved extensive planning, hard work, and sacrifice — my own and my parents’. Their savings were able to cover two years of tuition, and they generously gave me grocery money. I was lucky to have their assistance, and may have had to take out some government loans or worked more hours at my jobs if it hadn’t been available. I know I’m lucky.

But I think a distinction must be made between students who took out loans to cover basic costs, and students who took the max loans offered. Not all college debt is created equal. To a large extent, the amount of college debt accrued can be traced back to personal choices. Each decision made at the collegiate level bears a price tag. Private or public? Out-of-state or stay in-state? On-campus or off-campus? Should I study in London? Should I take 12 credits per semester or 16? Should get a get a part-time job or take out more loan money? Should I accept this extra loan money or not?

It was sometime during our senior year when my roommate found out that I had never taken out student loans. She was incredibly jealous, since she was about $40,000 in debt at the time, and she wasn’t done yet. I suspect that her total college bill was somewhere in the $55,000 range.

But I can’t feel sorry for her, at least not for the size of that number. In our time together as roommates, she went on a cruise to the Bahamas, to NYC, to Las Vegas. By her own admission, these trips were mostly paid for with student loan money.

Other friends funded FAC (Friday After Class) drinking binges with loan money. They rented the ultra-swanky-close-to-campus high-rise apartments with loan money. They purchased flat screens, motorcycles, luxury linens, and engagement rings with the checks that were issued once the university had covered their costs.

So many of these friends think their loans should be forgiven, hope that they will. They forget that the money they took didn’t just pay for books and classes. When I hear their suggestions of loan forgiveness, I cringe. Because while they were out running up $100-plus bar tabs that they’re having to pay back now, I was working to pay for my expenses. I refused to be tempted by the loans that were offered in my financial package, consoling myself that being debt-free after graduation would be worth it.

I can’t entirely blame my friends for taking the money, or for wanting an out. Loan officials shouldn’t have given them that much money; it was too much for students in their late teens and early twenties to comprehend, manage, or appreciate.

There are plenty of people who think that much of the point of college is for “the experience,” that the bar nights and fancy apartments and trips abroad were part of the education. I disagree. Was my college experience all that memorable or special? Afraid not. My college time was not meant to make memories to recall wistfully in middle age. It was to get an education in the field I was interested in pursuing without going into debt to get it. In those terms, my college experience was incredibly successful.

I agree that college costs are out of control. The tuition at the time I attended school had skyrocketed since years prior, and rates have continued to increase since. When I graduated, 2007/2008 tuition was $6,161 — a near 50 percent increase over the $4,110 it was five years earlier. Today it’s $7,425/year. Regulation on college costs is long overdue.

I’m interested in the reimbursement of necessary costs. Everyone should be able to get an education, and not everyone has parents to help, or should have to work as hard as I did to do it. But they should have to work somewhat hard. There has to be a way to take personal choices — and their consequences — out of the college debt debate.

Amy Renwick lives in Iowa.

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