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I'm a student at Drexel University. Drexel is a notoriously expensive school, and I pay roughly $35,000/yr in tuition, after awards. What's more, it is a five-year school. Currently, I'm in my fourth year. Throughout the year, I work full time six months, then go to classes for six months. Currently, I am making $28/hr, and I work until March, after which I will be attending classes full time until the following summer (2020). By this March, when I go back to classes, I'm projecting to have saved approximately $11.2k that will go towards housing, food, and tuition for the 5 upcoming terms (quarter terms).

As of today, I have 9 students loans:

• American Education Services, $29,652.52 (9.3%)


• Sallie Mae, $29,063.18 (9.3%)


• Sallie Mae, $24,062.80 (9.875%)


• Gov't Subsidized Loans (3) totaling $11,750


• Gov't Unsubsidized Loans (3) totaling $5,348

The total is a terrifying $94,286.35. What's more, is I have five terms left, as previously stated, each of which will be $7,979 in tuition. As well, I have rent to pay, which will be $517/mo until September when my lease ends. After that is still open-ended housing-wise.

Given the above, in order to pay for the rest of my schooling, I will need to take another $40,000 in loans, and I'm expecting to find work during classes to pay for living expenses etc. This brings my total debt to a staggering $134,181.35.

Needless to say, I'm nervous. However I have two things going for me:

1. I have not yet graduated, have realized the issue, and have over a year to prepare for a payment plan


2. I'm an electrical engineering major, specializing in analog, RF, and microwave design, which is a field in need of talent, and one which I already have several years of experience with. It's not unreasonable to expect a yearly income >$70,000 starting salary (my co-op job now pays about $60,000/yr before taxes).

I live fairly frugally. I'm 22 years old. I recently started using a credit card to build better credit, and always pay my balance in full. I spend approximately $750/mo in variable expenses (that is, in addition to my fixed spending like car insurance, rent, and car payments). Of the $750/mo, $370/mo is food, about $100/mo is utilities. I pay for my own health insurance ($2200/yr), and receive little to no assistance from family except for when a family member helped me buy a used car for my commute after my previous car was totaled (crushed by a tree, would you believe it). I go to the dentist every 6mo and typically pay the bill in full, about $700. I wear contacts, about $150/3mo. In all, even my current lifestyle requires ~$1,800/mo, in addition to those less frequent payments.

Depending on my work location and commuting options, I don't expect to pay more than $900/mo for rent. If I can, I typically go with the absolute cheapest apartment, or share e.g. a single bedroom and split the rent (my current situation). I've considered living out of my car, with a gym membership, or living at home.

With such an immense amount of debt, I do not know how to prepare for after my education ends. This is all not to mention my desire for graduate education, specifically I am interested in research and getting my PhD, which of course doesn't fit with the financial narrative above. I hope this is not too open ended, I know that questions should be answerable. But what should I be expecting? How much trouble am I in? And perhaps central to my post:

What advice or resources would you recommend for handling finances like these going forwards?

I also hope that the question finds enough generality to be useful to others besides me, as I can't be the only one who is in such a situation.

But what should I be expecting? How much trouble am I in?

If you graduated with $134,181 in loans at a rate of 9.3% you'd expect a repayment amount of $1,722/month for 10 years. If you make $70,000/year you'd have ~$2,617 after your loan payments each month, and if the $1,800 you mention is sustainable during loan repayment then you'd have an excess $817 each month.

As for trouble, one common mistake that many people make after landing a job after school is increasing their cost of living, they want a nicer car/apartment/furniture and go out for food/drinks more often, or less often but spend more money. The best thing you can do is keep in mind that every $1 you spend on something other than debt costs you an extra 9.3% compounding month after month.

What advice
or resources would you recommend for handling finances like these
going forwards?

I suggest focusing on living frugally, save up a small emergency fund (maybe just 1-2 months expenses) with your excess each month and after that start applying all extra towards the loans. Don't forego company 401k match, but I would skip other investments during aggressive repayment.

A proper written/electronic budget helps a lot of people, I recommend some form of a zero-based budget which is characterized by every dollar being given a purpose. Not just tracking spending like with Mint, but pro-actively deciding how each dollar will be spent as best as possible.

Extra income from a side job would be great and could really speed up the repayment, again, use the 9.3% interest as motivation to do whatever is necessary.

IMHO, you made a very poor choice with school selection. When we make poor choices as adults we have to write checks to solve those problems. Yours is one that will cost you well over 140K, and quite possibly more.

For the price of your last year, you could have attended a state university for 4 years and made a very similar salary. When one does not have money that is the best course of action. Keep schooling costs to a minimum. This would be quite a different story if you were graduating with 25K in debt.

What you did correctly is that you picked a good major. Some attend a similar school, also with no resources or support, and obtain a degree that qualifies them to work at Chipolte. Good work on picking a major with a good income level.

So what do you do now? IMHO you should treat your life like it is on fire. Work like crazy (like deliver pizzas in your off time), and spend nothing. Every extra cent goes to student loans. Without an extra job, you can probably make them disappear in less than 4 years. This means keeping very basic living expenses until your loans are gone.

The car is also likely a poor choice. Despite what "Madison avenue" tells us cars should be purchased with cash. It may be best to get rid of the car in lieu of transportation that does not require a car payment.

Its tough, but your future self will thank you. Also please don't think about buying a home until this mess is cleaned up.

It's a shame you didn't consider the overall cost of your education before borrowing $100k. But, what's done is done, and at least you are becoming aware of the problem and looking for ways to solve it.

Unfortunately, there's not a magic bullet to solve the debt you already have, but there might be options to stop the bleeding or even reduce it going forward:

• Find scholarships/grants. Apply for every scholarship you can, even if you don't think you qualify on the surface.


• Get part-time jobs while you're in school. If you can get enough work to stop borrowing money, you'll at least stop compounding the problem. Do ride sharing. Deliver pizzas. Tutor undergrads. Work for the university. You're going to have to work like mad to get it paid down, so you might as well get used to it now.


• Slow down your schooling. Every dollar you borrow now will take years to pay off (because you'll pay off the current debt first), potentially doubling or tripling the amount that you pay back once interest is accounted for. So even if slowing down your education results in delaying your career search, you might be better off in the long run.


• Get roommates. Share an apartment with a friend to reduce the amount of rent you pay.


• Look for cheaper health insurance. Is there a high-deductible plan that you can use? With that you can also contribute to an HSA that will reduce your tax burden and save for future medical bills.


• Switch schools. This one might be drastic, but school choice does not make as big a difference once you get a few years of experience under your belt.

Once you graduate, continue to live like you're broke (because you are). Don't buy a new car, a fancy house, etc. just because you make $70k a yer. Continue to live like a broke college student and you can have that debt paid off in a matter of 3-4 years.

Don't even consider graduate schooling unless you can pay for it in cash. You already realize that borrowing for school was a mistake - why make the same mistake twice?

I wouldn't think about graduate school yet...

You have a few options to reduce your future debt....

1) Go to a different university that accepts your credits that costs less! This might be a viable way to go if it doesn't extend your degree out 2 years. Otherwise you will be missing out on the potential 70k+ salary.

2) Finish your current degree as fast as you can and keep living very frugally. Slowing down with school will just decrease your future earnings. One year extra spent in school is an extra 70k+ that you aren't getting to pay off loans.

After you get a job, continue to live frugally, develop a safety net, then evaluate your financial situation and set budgets. Do NOT forget retirement, there are tax advantages and matching that you do not want to miss out on, compounding interest for yourself is something you want to get a head start on.

Then consider consolidating all your private loans (leave the federal ones alone those are low interest) into a lower interest loan, term doesn't matter look at the interest rate. (this might take some time if you don't have the credit to do it) This will allow you to much more easily evaluate your debt, without it affecting your lifestyle and pay less money in the long run.

If consolidating/refinancing isn't an option put all the extra money towards the HIGHEST interest loan to save the most money. This is assuming that none of the debts have early payoff/weird penalties to them. (again leave the federal ones alone they aren't high interest)

After you feel stable somewhere in this mess then start evaluating PhD

You've been tricked into an inappropriate lifestyle

And the student loan companies did it. Their motivation is the positively insane interest rates for loans which cannot be discharged in bankruptcy. You are their cash cow. You are doing exactly what they want.

Money is distributive. Money spent on something else is not spent on tuition, which requires more student loan. When you buy an $80 cell phone plan ($960/year) that is $960 not put toward tuition, which must necessarily be an additional $960 on the student loan at 9.3%. Would you intentionally borrow for 7 years at 9.3% to get that phone? Of course not. And yet, you are because money is distributive.

And you don't realize that. And it isn't anyone else's job to know that. It's yours. But there isn't good financial education in this country, because the finance business makes more money when people are in the dark. Suze Orman and Dave Ramsey just can't out-shout the system. More's the pity; a well-educated populace is more successful generally, and a rising economic tide floats most boats. (Not the corrupted ones).

Worse, this is "setting in" financial habits you will retain for your entire life. You feel like a victim now!? Fasten your seat belt. It gets worse unless you turn this crazytrain around.

What college is supposed to be

College is supposed to be a desperate hardscrabble... Working a summer job, ha, try working an evening job! A pizza slice is a weekly indulgence. Movie? Ha! Netflix? Ha! Bittorrent. And you're very busy so you don't have much time to commisserate about your miserable life.

Students are supposed to do scrappy things like

• know who sells ramen packets six for $1 instead of 20 cents


• forget cell phone, get an iPad Mini with cellular data, a $25 per 3 months data plan, Google Voice and a Bluetooth.


• Not even getting Internet/phone/cable at home, confine surfing to the school WiFi.


• Housemate sharing to extremes. Own apartment!? Yeah, after the student loans are paid down.


• Relentlessly pirate music and movies. Later in life, drop $200 for merch at the artist's $150/ticket live show, and buy the movie's deluxe edition in the latest format. Three times.


• Work a night job. Work two.


• Car? Laughable. Even delivery jobs or Uber can't make car ownership better than a loser's game. There's a reason pizza delivery guys drive '93 Geos. Otherwise you rely on your school's provided transit pass. And you don't really have time to go places, with all the jobs.

Now along come the student loan hawkers, and they say (in essence) "You don't need to do all that jazz. You can just have us pay all your chargeable student expenses, and keep all your earned money for lifestyle." And boy, that's seductive, isn't it!!

Play to your advantages

Don't even think of quitting Drexel. It is a great school and your choice of career will let you print money later. Gosh, you're making me want to go there myself.

You go to school at the perfect-storm intersection of extreme transitability and sanely priced housing. Your school is blocks from 30th St. Station, not in freeway hell like UTexas/San Antonio. Your city is sanely priced to live in, not nosebleed expensive like Berkeley.

So there is no conceivable reason to be needing a car. If your workplace is somewhere stupidly non-transitable, and I mean "stupidly" because transit in Philly is so good you have a good collection of employers located along it, particularly when 30th is the best hub in town. So change jobs if you need to.

You can try #VanLife if you really, really are addicted to automobiles, but that sounds hard in the winter, and I think if you do an honest, searching study of all your automobile costs, I think you will find your TCO for the automobile is larger than the cost of modest housemate-share + transit. Which means the automobile is stupid. You definitely need to cut car or housing.

Cut it

You just need to be merciless about expenses like that. That apartment, I don't know where it is, maybe you chose a location that requires a car, but if so you gotta break that lease (do the effort of listing and showing, the landlord will probably let you out at negligible cost, mine did). If you are in fact near Drexel, housemate shares look to be $500ish, so get one or become one.

You need to murder that living expense down to about $800/month, notably by killing the car, unless you want to drive Uber at night. You should be getting over $4000/mo. from the engineering job and basically every dollar of that should go to tuition, to either pay off or avert student loans. Also, you will need a night job.

From there, it's school, job, ramen, and BitTorrent. Sucks, but that's what school is.

Well, that's what personal responsibility is. The loan hawkers would much prefer you do the other thing, in which case you will be their slave. That is literally the plot of Pinnochio, by the way, "Pleasure Mountain" being the lifestyle to which you have become accustomed.