To Stay In College Or To Drop Out: A Debt Lawyer’s Perspective

When you were in high school, your guidance counselors and representatives from expensive test prep companies promised you that going to college would be a fun-filled road to riches, but now that you are still a junior after eight semesters, their megawatt smiles have long since faded from memory.  It’s easy for the Internet to blame the student debt crisis on people who got degrees in so-called impractical majors at expensive, out-of-state private universities, but in fact, student debt affects almost everyone.  Lots of people who got degrees in eminently career-focused fields, such as nursing or criminal justice, are struggling to keep up with payments on their student loans.  Student loans are also a big problem even for people who left their degree programs without graduating.  If you are considering dropping out of college, or if you have already dropped out, a Boca Raton debt lawyer can help you choose the best strategy for repaying your student loans.

Is It Time to Cut Your Losses?

It is easy to find personal essays online in which people explain their reasons for dropping out of college.  The stories about people who dropped out in order to pursue a career in beekeeping or burlesque dancing, or because they decided that formal education is a big conspiracy, make for clickable news headlines, but for most college dropouts (who, by the way, account for more than a third of people who enroll in college) drop out for much more mundane reasons.  Most people drop out because college is just too expensive, and the sooner they stop the principal balance of their student loans from piling up, the greater their chances of paying off their student debt in a lifetime.

Most students work while enrolled, so if you already have a job, and you stay at your same job after you drop out, you are already doing better than some.  The trouble is that you will need to start making payments on your loans.  Income-based repayment plans, where you pay X percent of your income toward your loans until they are paid off or until 25 years have gone by (at which point the remaining balance gets forgiven) are less scary when you are 22 than they are when you are 45.

Is Part-Time Enrollment a Good Option?

If you are not ready to give up on your college degree, but you need to devote more time to earning an income right now, part-time enrollment could be an option.  The trouble is that, unfortunately, the creditors might start asking for student loan payments if you drop below a certain number of credit hours.  Your academic adviser and the financial counselors at your university can help you make this decision.

Sometimes Dropping Out Is the Wisest Financial Decision

A debt attorney can help you find the best way to move forward if you have dropped out of college after taking out student loans.  Contact Nowack & Olson, PLLC for help today.

Resource:

forbes.com/advisor/student-loans/dropping-out-of-college/