The cost of education in the United States is rising year after year and students are in an endless and unfortunate cycle of taking on more and more student loans. Many students are making the risky decision of taking on much more loans then they can handle–thus parents come into the picture.
Many families have no choice and fall into this predicament. Nowadays it seems like one must get a higher education in order to get a job. Parents might have to work much longer and for many more years than they had originally expected to because of student loans.
Most parents are coming to the somewhat grave realization that they have many more financially difficult years left to go. The outlook on life that they used to have, where their children would graduate college, move out, get a job and then they would be free to retire and travel the world for the rest of their lives, is no longer a reality. A change in simply their reality now, in comparison to what they thought it would be when they first began saving for college.
Junior Erin McLaughlin’s mother, Kim McLaughlin, shared how she helps pay students loans at Cabrini. “With Erin living off campus these last two years, we are paying her rent and utilities for the house and that is keeping her loans lower these last two years,” McLaughlin said.
Most parents will agree that student loans are extremely important and necessary to have. “As a parent who has two children, one graduated from college and the other a junior at Cabrini, I feel that student loans were a big help in paying for college,” junior Colleen Stewart’s mother, Mary Beth Stewart, said. Stewart talked about the benefits of loans and how it will help her children in the future when they need to purchase a home or car.
“For many kids, student loans are a great choice while in school but once they graduate and try to find a decent paying job that is where it becomes tricky,” Stewart said. “If they can’t find a job then they don’t have the means to pay them back, and if they don’t have someone to help them financially they default on their loans and that becomes an even bigger problem.”
The downside is that college loans put a tremendous stress on families today. They want to put their children through the best college they can so the children will be given the best opportunities to secure the best jobs so they can have a successful and happy future. Meanwhile the college cost just keeps increasing without any pressure to rein in their cost structure.
“The college loan dilemma has always existed. I think it has become an even bigger hurdle with today’s economy,” parent and coach Jackie Neary said. She talked about how she has a strong attachment with the recruiting process and her student athletes. “I worry about my players just as much as I do my own children and how will they manage their student loans when they graduate from Cabrini,” Neary said. “But in the end, you cannot replace a college education and the opportunities it presents! Only so it counters the fact that I am worried but I also think a degree is priceless.”
Most Cabrini parents are really thankful for student loans but also feel the pressure that college tuition puts on a family. With today’s economy financial pressures on parents is now more than they ever expected.
“Unfortunately we would not be able to afford the tuition without loans,” sophomore Victoria Canelli’s mother, Kathleen Canelli, said. “It is a little scary to know that each year we are building a small mountain of debt that will keep us paying for our children’s college years after they graduate,” Canelli said.
