vii. Educational Debt

Photo by University of New Orleans

As you progress through your college experience, the cost of college can add up rapidly. Worse, your anxiety about the cost of college may rise faster as you hear about the rising costs of college and horror stories regarding the “student loan crisis.” It is important to remember that you are in control of your choices and the cost of your college experience. You don’t have to be a sad statistic though! Learn all you can about responsibly financing your education and managing your money.

Education Choices

Education is vital to living. Education starts at the beginning of our life, and as we grow, we learn language, sharing, and to look both ways before crossing the street. We also generally pursue a secular or public education that often ends at high school graduation. After that, we have many choices, including getting a job and stopping our formal education, working at a trade or business started by our parents and bypassing additional schooling, earning a certificate from a community college or four-year college or university, earning a two-year or associate degree from one of the same schools, and completing a bachelor’s or advanced degree at a college or university. We can choose to attend a public or private school. We can live at home or on a campus.

Each of these choices impacts our debt, happiness, and earning power. The average income goes up with an increase in education, but that is not an absolute rule. The New York Federal Reserve Bank reported in 2017 that approximately 34 percent of college graduates worked in a job that did not require a college degree (Cooper, 2017), and in 2013, CNN Money reported on a study from Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce showing that nearly 30 percent of Americans with two-year degrees are now earning more than graduates with bachelor’s degrees (Chen, 2019). Of course, many well-paying occupations do require a bachelor’s or master’s degree. You have started on a path that may be perfect for you, but you may also choose to make adjustments.

College success from a financial perspective means that you must:

• Know the total cost of the education
• Consider job market trends
• Work hard at school during the education
• Pursue ways to reduce costs

Sample College Costs

While costs vary from student to student, answering the questions below may assist with estimating your cost of attendance for one year at UNO.

Undergraduate Estimated Yearly Cost

Figure 5 – University of New Orleans, estimated yearly tuition.