The Cycle of Poverty

There are alternatives to huge student loans.

B&M programs are often less expensive than DL. State schools are often less expensive than private schools. In-state is often much less expensive than out-of-state. The teachers colleges are often less expensive than the big prestigious research universities. Attending part-time is less expensive than attending full-time. And living a 'starving student' life-style isn't half bad if you are young and single. Find some other students, go in together and share a rental flat in an edgy alternative/dangerous part of a big city.

(Students are like gays. They are the shock troops, the first ones that hit the beach in urban gentrification. Where students go, the hippest cafes and nightclubs are sure to follow. Then the upscale loft-dwellers move in, used-bookstores and storefront performance spaces are replaced by designer home furnishings and trendy restaurants, and the students are priced out into tough new low-rent frontier neighborhoods. That's how it works in San Francisco and NYC.)

I did my BA in the late 70's by working part time and studying part-time, and graduated without any debt. I did my DL MA a couple of decades later at CSUDH by taking a class or two a semester over several years, when that program cost $4,200 total. So my per-year graduate program costs weren't a burden. No loans at any time.