Online Degree

Value of Tuck MBA - Last weekend was weird in North East. A major snow storm was expected. They even gave it a name – Nemo. Many offices in NYC were closed and events cancelled, Massachusetts even administered curfew. Ironically, me and my classmates participated in case competition at Columbia and anyway headed to NYC.
Well, the snowstorm did hit the North-East and NYC in particular, but in my perception was not that bad. I personally was amazed how efficiently streets and highways were cleaned. However, it’s not the snowstorm that became the highlight of the weekend.
Before the competition began, we got to listen to several speakers invited by organizers. When I was sitting and listening to the speeches under the Dome of Low Memorial Library at Columbia University (which is by the way neither low nor a library, but this gorgeous building with marble pillars and statues of great ancient
Greeks and a Roman truly looks and feels like a temple of knowledge) it suddenly hit me that my Tuck MBA is like a ticket to outer space.
I deliberately don’t use the lottery analogy here, as I worked hard to be admitted to a top MBA program and I continue working hard. What I mean by the “ticket to outer space” – starting my Tuck MBA I made a step into a completely different dimension and to a completely new level of perception, the borders and horizons being pushed so far that I don’t see them anymore. To be honest, even when we reach our boldest and most ambitious goals, we get used to our new lifestyle and start taking it for granted. But there are moments when you pause and realize where you are, like ascending a mountain you would stop to catch your breath, look around and suddenly realize that you’re far above the ground you usually walk and what a gorgeous view opens from that point.
This idea hit me during the conference and just blew my mind. Two years ago I could not even dream about it, but last Friday I had an opportunity to listen (and ask questions!) to CEO of Becton Dickinson – one of the global leaders in development and manufacturing of medical devices and instruments; get story telling tips from Ogilvy PR Global CEO (who used to work as managing director for Wall Street Journal and VP of CNBC); and participate in discussion with Ernst & Young CEO. Apart from this, I met smart and ambitious people from other business school, pursuing similar goals in life. But the most amazing fact is that now I look at business problems differently, from a different angle and at a different level. And given a fair amount of information about company and industry I am capable of performing a comprehensive analysis and mapping out a strategy. Of course, in real life problem solving is more complex and takes much longer, yet in six months in an MBA program I made light years of personal and professional progress; it is pretty amazing and totally worth it.

Student Loan Debt Crisis: How’d We Get Here and What Happens Next? (US Education)  - The amount of student loan debt and the rate of delinquency have been climbing for years now. If it seems like every new statistic is worse than the last, that’s because it is. Two studies released this week are no exception.

Credit bureau TransUnion says that in the past five years, the average student loan debt each borrower carries has risen 30% to $23,829. More than half of student loan accounts, which add up to more than 40% of the total dollars owed, are in deferral status. This is just a temporary reprieve; students can defer for only a few years before they have to repay.

The trouble is, many of them aren’t doing so. FICO Labs found that delinquencies rose by 22% in five years. For the newest group of loans it studied, delinquency rates are 15.1% — higher than the 11% cited by the Federal Reserve in a November report. Like the Fed’s study, the FICO analysis doesn’t include loans that are in a deferred status — which means the number of people who can’t afford to pay back that money may be almost twice as high as what the official delinquency rates reflect.

This situation obviously can’t be sustained over the long term. “I think a few more years and it’s going to be a general crisis,” says Barry Bosworth, an economist at the Brookings Institution. Interest rates are unusually low right now; when they rise, more borrowers who were just keeping their heads above water are liable to become delinquent.

HR 432, Restoring Bankruptcy Protection Rights To Student Loan Borrowers - Last Wednesday, HR 432, which would allow private loans to be discharged in bankruptcy, was introduced by Congressmen Danny Davis (D-Ill.) and Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.). This is the fifth time that that this type of legislation has been presented for passage.

As most of my readers are aware, I am in full favor of restoring bankruptcy protection rights to borrowers with private student loans. The same goes for federal loans, too. However, there are valid concerns about the potentially, negative consequences of a bill like this passing - this is always the case when legislation is passed. That's to say, the outcome can result in unforeseen problems. The most significant concern I have is the following: if the bill passes, Congress and higher education policymakers might pat themselves on and declare, "The problem is

solved, so there is nothing to worry about now." That is not what we want our dear Congressmen, Congresswomen, and policymakers to conclude! Far from it.

And, as I've mentioned previously, the lenders, who are culpable - just as the U.S. government is - in creating this crisis, would not be held accountable if this law were passed. Furthermore, bankruptcy is not a walk in the park. It is a difficult procedure, which would in the end hurt the borrowers (not to mention taxpayers, too).

Again, I want to be clear - bankruptcy protection rights need to be restored. In fact, they should have never been taken away in the first place. Indeed, they were taken away as a result of false claims made about scores of doctors and attorneys, with high levels of student loan debt, who purportedly rushed to bankruptcy attorneys, declared bankruptcy, and got off the hook in - if memory serves me - the late 1980s and 1990s. Based upon extensive research I have done, searching to find proof of this fact, I haven't found a shred of evidence that confirms the claim. In fact, the argument reminds me of President Reagan's problematic description of the black "welfare queen" who, so he fallaciously claimed, abused the welfare system, bought fancy cars, flashy clothing, and so forth. While there are people who do abuse the welfare system, the majority of recipients use the support to feed and clothe their families. In addition, these people, who receive a minimal amount of support from the government, are also the working poor, a class of people in the U.S. that continues to grow - unfortunately - exponentially. Furthermore, the majority of welfare recipients are not African Americans, but poor, whites who live in the South in rural areas. Mind you, whites make up the majority of Americans, but it is a important reminder of how this remark by President Reagan became part of the national conversation as an accepted truth, one of which has had negative ramifications for the welfare system and those who receive support from it. This assertion led to an aggressive dismantling of the system. Naturally, the same goes for the myth that countless doctors and attorneys recklessly declared bankruptcy after they earned their degrees.

The bill is currently under review by the House Committee on the Judiciary.

Student Loan Debt Could Cripple Economy For Decades - The price of a college education has been climbing at a substantially higher rate than inflation for years; meanwhile, the value of a college degree has been falling. That’s why thousands of debt-laden college graduates are facing the worst economic bust to plague the United States since the housing bubble burst.

A recent report from the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, entitled “Why Are Recent College Graduates Underemployed?”, refutes the oft-repeated theory that college educated Americans have the potential to earn substantially higher lifetime incomes than their uneducated peers. In fact, the report indicates that many college-educated Americans are woefully underemployed because “the growth of supply of college-educated labor is
exceeding the growth in the demand for such labor in the labor market.”

From the report: 

Meanwhile, over the past five years the average amount of student loan debt accrued by college students has risen by 30 percent to $23,829. More than half of student loan holders have currently deferred student loan payments, which is only a temporary solution for struggling degree holders.

Some economists expect the American economy to struggle for decades under massive student loan debts because student loans are almost impossible to discharge in bankruptcy and the government will collect by garnishing the paychecks and tax refunds of those who fail to pay. Furthermore, being underwater on student loans can harm a person’s credit score, making it more expensive for them to get loans for homes or vehicles.

As more and more Americans struggle to pay back student loans while underemployed, the economy as a whole will suffer, since the purchases of first homes and other durable goods are put off indefinitely.

Source : personalliberty.com

Money Does Not Grow on Trees - It has now been over one month since my student loans entered repayment.  One month of numerous letters, emails, and telephone calls.  The letters arrived first to remind me of my upcoming payments.  Then the emails began and finally telephone calls.

     In reply, I have sent mail to all of my lenders and I have called them.  As I have stated in earlier posts, my lenders are unwilling to make different repayment schedules based on my financial situation.  That is, with the exception of my federal loans.
     My federal loans account for approximately $33,000 of my student loan debt.  Therefore, they represent about 25 percent of my total debt.  $33,000 is by no means a small amount and so I applied for Income-based Repayment.  I applied about a month ago through the Department of Education’s website and Nelnet.  It was a simple process that took approximately 15

minutes to complete.  Income-based repayment, or IBR, uses tax information from the IRS to determine how much money is owed per month.  Since I had current IRS information, a lot of work was streamlined.

     The decision has now been made regarding my application.  I found out this past week that I qualify for the IBR plan.  Five loans are under the plan, which amounts to $26,800.  Since I qualify, my monthly payments have been reduced from $304.55 to $0.  Yes, zero dollars.  The reason for that is because of my total debt to income ratio.  Although I wanted to qualify, I was unsure if I would.  Now that I have, it’s a good start to my student loan debt.

     By saving the $304.55 per month, my income almost covers my private loan debt.  However, I am still in the red by about $100 per month.

     Now that I know I qualify for the Federal guidelines of the IBR plan, it reaffirms my commitment in seeing new repayment plans for private loans.  If private lenders adopted a similar plan to IBR, student loan debt would be manageable.

     I am thankful for the Federal repayment plans and am hopeful that they will one day extend to all student loans.  After all, Money Doesn't Grow on Trees.

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