4 Responses to “Boston real estate and college loans” »»

1. Jen
   Comment by Jen | 11/28/11 at 4:49 am

   Interesting idea, but the problem with it is that your college major doesn’t dictate your career. For example, my major would be considered one of those useless majors, yet I am employed in a lucrative field which has NOTHING to do with my major. And I know others in my industry whose majors are unrelated to their jobs.

   Also, your college major doesn’t indicate your work ethic or financially savvy. Well, if you’re a finance major one hopes you would have some financial savvy….. :/ Finally, you could get someone who games the system… They start out college saying they’ll be an engineering or accounting major, but in the spring of their sophomore year they switch to studying classical Greek. So for two years they qualified for student loans, but now they are in a low rent major, so while they’ll have trouble getting loans for their jr and sr years, they are still on the hook for the freshman and sophomore loans. And so is the bank….

2. Nemo
   Comment by Nemo | 11/28/11 at 5:21 am

   I tend to favor the idea.

   I think Jen’s last issue about gaming the issue could be handled by using different lending caps per major. If you change your major, prior borrowing counts against your new (lower) cap. Borrowing to take courses outside your major would not be permitted, of course. I think lending caps would also help to rein in the college tuition increases.

   Nemo

3. Funny
   Comment by Funny | 11/28/11 at 11:22 am

   Some of the riches, most wealth producing people have college degrees in the arts, or are drop outs.

   While it’s easy to off the cuff classify whats “good” and “bad” by your own ideology or culture views; it rarely correlates to anything meaningful in the real world.

   Without college loans we might not have Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckkerburg . They might have never had the chance to try something different, instead having to work a real post HS job to put food on the table.

   Also, funny you should mention it. China apparently is doing something similar. Overall, opinion it it is it’s a resoundingly bad idea.

4. Jen
   Comment by Jen | 11/30/11 at 10:25 am

   Another thing to factor in: An investment banker friend told me that the prestigious I-banks do NOT hire business majors fresh out of college. They hire liberal arts grads. They want employees who have a broad range in education and would rather train the new recruits in the ways of Goldman Sachs than get someone trained by an undergrad b-school. So, a English major could very well end up with a highly lucrative career.

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