Should I take out Student Loans?

Post Reply New Topic

Ok, so next year I (should) graduate. My only option is to go to college; for which I would need to take out student loans. However, student loans are expensive, and you need to start paying them back six months after graduation.

People with AS tend to have a hard time finding a job, and one Autist I know graduated almost a year ago and still doesn't have a job.

Are student loans my only hope, my inevitable downfall, or both?

Follow Up Questions:

1.) What do you plan to major?

2.) What do you want to do with your life?

3.) Why is your only option college?

You need to look at college as an investment in yourself and your future. There's nothing wrong with using borrowed money to invest, but that investment should be able to pay itself back.

Look at it as an investment like any other.

Some variables to consider in the equation:
how much do you like the field?
What's the typical burn-out rate of the field? (What percent leave the field, the median age they move on, etc.)
How functional are you? Are you indistinguishable from Normals for at least a 3-8 hour window?
How long does it take the avg. person to get a job after graduating, and how many get a job in the field?

Consider as many things as you can, and weight them with a dollar value somehow. I'll tell you in advance, things _you_ enjoy doing will have a much higher value in a job than things you don't. For instance, perhaps an EE enjoys hands-on tinkering, but lands a job laying out schematics. There's a lower value there.

Then just run the numbers. (Pro Life Tip: we already have way more people qualified as curators & researchers than we do jobs for them, so art & English are out without you having a solid business plan before you start.)

Just factor in as much as you can about what you think your preferred job might be, and what it takes to get there.

For medical, science & engineering jobs, it's almost always a no-brainer; you'll make more by investing in the education. It will get more dicey when you get to the more broad or esoteric degrees, like communications. Jobs in these types of fields range from the lower end--being a copy writer for a small coupon mailing house--to the upper echelon--head interpreter for the U.N.

Just do the math.

Also, consider unconventional ideas. For example, I had a buddy whose dad had college taken care of for him, with only a small shortfall. He worked part time, but took out the maximum student loans and invested the money. He came out with a ton of cash in the bank. It was only slightly risky (a 4-year down market was the risk), but it payed off in spades. YMMV

College these days is a pretty terrible idea for the most part. Personally, I'm about $22K in the hole and I graduated 2.5 years ago. I was unemployed for 11 months after I graduated and ended up having to move halfway across the country for a while just to find a sh***y low-wage customer service job, and those are all I've been able to get since. I pay almost $300/month towards my debt. Was it worth it? NO! If you're not planning to major in anything marketable, you're better off being unemployed, than being unemployed and a debt-slave.

There are still good jobs you can get without a college degree.

That's why I asked why the OP feels college is his only choice. That is a dangerous line of thinking in today's world.

College is my only option. I don't have the physical skills for a labor job like carpenter (and my father was a carpenter), and my intelligence is extremely high (aren't I modest?). But, I don't actually know in what I want to major

Not all jobs that don't involve college involve hard labor. Just an FYI.

So I think the question is, what are your interests? What do you enjoy studying and doing? That can provide some clues about what you might want to major in.

No job in which I can be succesful, how about that. Many fields don't require college, but those are generally the fields in which I would not excell.

I have loved science and history my whole life, but many people have suggested English Major, due to my poetry and essays.

But labor jobs, and also jobs like customer services and sales, or any business really, would be my foil.

You like science, do you like medicine? What fields of science?

English major, if you were considering teaching, I'd say go for it. English major on it's own is a risky proposition unless you tie it to a skill like technical writing.

Oh god no, I cant go to med school with a 2.3gpa I like the more specific branches of science, like astronomy and geology. But if I were to be a teacher I'd teach anatomy & physiology, not English.

When it comes to English, my specialty is poetry

You could try petroleum engineering. It involves geology, wages are high, and unemployment is low.

That sounds fun, but I dont know much about it. And I can't take a job that would cause me to leave the state. My family is here.

Well, I never actually said med school. There's nursing, radiological technicians, medical billing, you name it. Many of those careers only require a 2 year degree from a Community College



Petroleum engineering is all about oil and gas mining. Yes, you'd prob have to leave home unless you live in North Dakota (Balkken Oil Field), Texas, or Israel. (There's supposed to be a huge field off the coast of Israel.)



You'd probably end up as a health or PE teacher. While there aren't as many as say English or Math teachers, it is a potential job path.

You could def pursue Poetry, but I wouldn't major in it. It could def be a hobby you could submit poems to get published.

Geology can be dangerous though in that a lot of positions require a masters degree.

That said, if you were deadset on English, get a teaching certificate with it as well, unless you want to try tech writing, which pays well.

Let me settle this

None of them appeal to me. Not a one.


Then I just couldn't do it, I'm on the east coast.



Yeah... no way.
Me, a PE teacher? That would certainly shock everyone who knows me, the guy who can't hit a tennis ball 1 in 10 tries.



Yeah. Probably.

Anyways, what I want to Major in, while relevant, is not my first worry, My first worry is how I'm going to pay for it all

As far as petroleum engineering goes, on the East Coast there's a good chance you're sitting on or on the edge of the Marcellus Shale. Which they're going to be fracking, unfortunately, for a very long time.

Good news for you-- lots of work. West Virginia University also has one of the best petroleum and natural gas engineering programs in the country, and it's still one of the cheapest universities in the country.

DO NOT MAJOR IN ENGLISH!! !! NO, NO, NO!! !! Unless you love it, want to go all the way to PhD, and do not want to have a family (it might be more possible for a male to balance a professorship with a family, but I watched my female professors try and it was next to impossible, hence I took my BA and my BABY and ran), English is a TERRIBLE choice. Particularly if you're going on loans.

History is pretty much the same story, and pure sciences aren't much better. If you want a job, you need something applied. Engineering, environmental management, the medical field, business (I'm thinking accounting, not sales)-- something that leads directly into a large field.

Teaching is NOT a good career choice for an Aspie. You think you're going to spend all day working with knowledge and helping little people who want to learn, and that sounds great. But the reality is that you're going to spend all day locked in a room with little people who want to see what they can get away with (seriously-- think about your peers' behavior), and that's not the worst part. The worst part is that you're going to spend all day playing the world's most intense game of office politics, in a field where you are constantly criticized, under a microscope, and managed by politicians and other incompetent bureaucrats. Flawless social skills are the single most important attribute for a teacher-- sad, considering what they do, but true.

Been there, tried that-- I loved the kids, even the stubborn ones who were hard to teach anyway and doing their damnedest to be intractable (actually, I liked them best-- we had something in common-- I wanted to be what was, back then, called a behavioral disorders teacher for middle school and junior high). But when my professors decided that my personality was unsuitable, refused to recognize my required volunteer hours, and started trying to run me out of the program, I didn't exactly think it was worthwhile to put up a fight. I realized that I would have to fight the same fight, every day of every year, for my entire career-- so I switched to English, got pregnant, accepted being chained to my hubby's career, and found my life.

It worked out well for me. For a guy?? Not so likely.

If you are as smart as you think you are (and you may be), start applying for scholarships now. I didn't have a diagnosis back in '96 (yes, I graduated the year you were born), but I can't imagine that it's legal for having Asperger's to preclude you from being eligible for an academic scholarship.

You sound as if you are setting yourself up for the same mistake I made-- Going straight to college, without any idea of what you actually WANT to do with it, because it's "the only viable option" or "what stupid-smart people do."

IT ISN'T. I didn't have any interest in trade school back then either, but looking back on it I can see that it would have been the way to go. Think about what you might like to do in the end-- and then think of the entry-level position with the minimum qualifications, and get a trade-school certificate in that. This will accomlish several things:

1) You get a chance to dip your toes in and try it out before committing to a 4-year degree. Going to college when you don't know what you want to do only helps the college and the bankers. It doesn't do you a lick of good, other than getting you some hard knocks and maybe if you're lucky some good memories.

2) Trade school is A LOT cheaper-- you might even be able to access it for free if this is not your last year of high school. If it doesn't work out, you're out a FEW thousand, instead of SEVERAL thousand.

3) Trade school is also lower-pressure. MUCH lower-pressure. FAR less likely to give you a nervous breakdown. It's made for people who are bright enough, but not any smarter than the average bear (or less)-- though that's not to say there aren't plenty of bright people there (there are). It's just not the kind of place where you're going to find Golden Children and Future High Achievers (TM)-- you know, snotty newly-minted adult brats who are just sooooo proud of themselves. There's very little politics, and very little rah-rah-rah status-fantasy crap. It's made to be PRACTICAL-- this is how to do your job, this is how to get a job, now you can move forward with your life.

3a) You might find it hard to believe right now, but in just a few years, smart practical young women with good heads on their shoulders are going to really dig a practical man with a decent paycheck, potential for advancement, and a plan and a good head on his shoulders. Being fun at a party and having good hair is a big deal when you're 18, but it gets old fast once reality sets in (around the mid-20s).

4) It's a short path to an above-minimum-wage paycheck. You get in, you get out, you put on your ABA-graduate manners and you get a job (it doesn't have to be auto repair or carpentry or the traditional shop-class stuff you think of-- there are ALL KINDS of trade school certificates). Then you keep living at home, help out with the housework and pay your folks a pretty darn low rent, and enjoy being told what a good boy/fine young man you've become (and all the while you are not entirely responsible for yourself, still have your support system, can still spend your free time in your familiar room enjoying your familar interests in a familiar place) And-- this is important-- while you're enjoying this less-stressful like, you build skills and save up money to apply to college in a few years as a non-traditional student. Paying as you go, instead of accruing debt.

5) Did you get that part about applying to college as a non-traditional student?? I hope so, because that's the whole point. Trade school does not in any way preclude college later-- something I think Aspies, with our tendency to black-and-white thinking, tend to miss. PLENTY of people get a trade-school certificate and then go to college to advance-- smart people, who aren't spoiled brats who went to college to have sex and drink beer and get away from their parents. College is MUCH better as a non-traditional student-- if you go when you're 18, it ends up being an extension of high school. Being older and wiser lets you stand out from the pack, and puts you in contact with some MUCH cooler people.

Yes, I'm telling you what I wish I'd done. Honestly, when I'm not depressed and hating myself and thinking that my family was a terrible mistake, NOT doing it that way is my greatest regret in life. So my advice is biased, and I'm telling you exactly what the bias is so you can analyze around it. I still think it's pretty good advice. Show it to your folks and ask them what they think. YMMV.

People keep suggesting Trade School.

The problem is, nothing with a trade school interests me. Many Trade School jobs are either for technology, at which I dont excell; and stuff such as carpentry and electronics. I dont work very well with that kind of stuff, my specialty is my mind. I work well with my hands, but I dont have good 'technical' skills.