College Loan Could Mean Low Earnings for Fresh Graduates

"According to the College Board, borrowing to pay for college generally makes sense because education builds earning potential. The typical college graduate earns about 73 percent more than the typical high school graduate, and the higher pay covers the cost of four years of tuition and fees by the time the graduate is 33."

A news from the Baltimore Sun revealed that students who avail of college loans may be facing huge debts when they graduate and force to take on even low paying jobs in order to pay off the debt before interests sip in.

"Too many students don't think about it until they are about to graduate from college," says Mark Oleson, director of the Office for Financial Success at the University of Missouri-Columbia. "But by that time they might have dug themselves into a hole they can't afford."

In a recent poll of 1,508 college graduates between ages 21 and 35, Mathew Greenwald & Associates found that 44 percent delayed buying a house because of the burden of student loans. And 28 percent postponed having children.

About 27 percent skipped medical or dental procedures, and 32 percent said college loans and credit-card debt for college forced them to move back into a parent's home or live there longer than they expected.

Before deciding on a college, and loans, we suggest thinking about the student's likely career choice and pay.