since i've been poor enough to have had to live in a car and worse, i have been deathly afraid of any kind of debt. i've bought a couple of new cars with loans, both of which were under 10k, but paid them off in two years b/c i couldn't stand to have debt hanging over my head. Even my beat up used 92 pathfinder (FOAD) was purchased outright with 8k cash--cash from the sale of the house during a divorce--and i scrimped and saved until i'd manage to get all that money back in the bank. mostly thanks to single head of household status and the EITC which, on grad stud and adjunct wages, kicks you back about 2500 a year.
i can deal with debt for a house. i can deal with a teensy weensy bit of debt for a reliable vehicle --particularly when i used to have to commute over 100 miles a day in snowy, hilly upstate NY.
but debt for something like a degree seemed a crazy idea to me, particularly because, being poor, i was constantly reminded of all the dishwashers, small time sales reps, etc. who had PhDs. It is one of the moral tales told among the poor and working class to encourage skepticism about the worth of an edjakashun.
Consequently, i got through college and grad school with a grand total of $5k in debt because I took out two student loans of 2500--the max at the time ten years ago as an undergrad. I was unaware, actually, that I could even get a loan for graduate school. I got fellowships and TAships and taught 2 courses a semesters, sometimes 4, to get by. No one ever said anything. I guess they figured I knew.
So, I'm truly curious, given that you taught at a state college during the time i was going to college, how I could have swung 40k worth of loans? I thought the max was 2500 for undergrads?
Kelley