NRCC News

Community College Awareness Month: What You Don't Know About Student Debt CAN Hurt You

Apr 05 2017

This is an archived article!

This article was published on Apr 05 2017 and was archived on Apr 06 2018. The information below may be outdated or inaccurate.

Time for a quick reality check: Yes, higher education is still one of the best investments you can make in yourself. On average, college graduates (including associate degree holders) make more money and have better career prospects than high-school graduates.

But the rising cost of college means more and more Americans are going into serious debt. An estimated 42 million of us are more than $1.3 trillion in the hole to pay for college. Americans owe more in student debt than on car loans and credit cards. In fact, student debt is climbing so fast that you can actually watch it grow at the National Student Loan Debt Clock, http://www.marketwatch.com/story/every-second-americans-get-buried-under-another-3055-in-student-loan-debt-2015-06-10 .

If you're considering higher education options, you owe it to yourself to make careful choices about how to pay for college.

Here are a few things you might not know about student debt:

•Being loaded down by student debt can keep you from living your life. Student debt interferes with decisions about marriage, children and home ownership.http://www.padillaco.com/the-news/news-items/college-debt-weighs-on-workplace-engagement

•Student debt can follow you for decades and hamper your ability to invest for retirement. And it's difficult to gain relief from student debt, even in bankruptcy. http://www.demos.org/what-cost-how-student-debt-reduces-lifetime-wealth#findingshttps://studentloanhero.com/featured/student-loan-bankruptcy-discharge/

Here's the bottom line: think long and hard about how you're going to pursue that college degree. Learn how much college will cost. Did you know you can save about $45,000 by earning your associate degree at one of Virginia's Community Colleges, then transferring to a four-year state university?

There are smart options available to pursue your degree without a mountain of debt. https://www.vawizard.org/wizard/home