Anyone screwed over with student loans ?

[FlyingLotus]

Im taking a loan out for approx 50k for art school in january (3d animation). This covers tuition and living expenses for the 1 year intensive course. Its a really good school apparently - but im still nervous about the year ending, being 25 years old, jobless and my life being screwed from debt.

Everyone is encouraging me saying its an investment in my future, but im still nervous about it.
Anyone had any experiences, or words of wisdom ?

 

[crazyquik]

Well, after you take this $50k risk and then apply yourself tirelessly to your studies, one of two things will happen:

1 - you will be unable to get a job and be crushed by student loan debt

or

2- you will get a great job, make lots of money, and then have much of it taxed away and given to people who didn't take the risk to go to college and didn't apply themselves tirelessly. In America we all this "CHANGE you can believe in," because it's more fair that way

 

[DNW]

Originally Posted by crazyquik

Well, after you take this $50k risk and then apply yourself tirelessly to your studies, one of two things will happen: 1 - you will be unable to get a job and be crushed by student loan debt or 2- you will get a great job, make lots of money, and then have much of it taxed away and given to people who didn't take the risk to go to college and didn't apply themselves tirelessly. In America we all this "CHANGE you can believe in," because it's more fair that way

It's a win-win situation, really. BTW, my first statement from my law school loan came in a couple of days ago. Ouch!

 

[crazyquik]

Either way he will get to avoid working for another year, and learn a lot about 3D animation. Then maybe SF can get 3D smilies

 

[celery]

Originally Posted by crazyquik

Well, after you take this $50k risk and then apply yourself tirelessly to your studies, one of two things will happen:

1 - you will be unable to get a job and be crushed by student loan debt

or

2- you will get a great job, make lots of money, and then have much of it taxed away and given to people who didn't take the risk to go to college and didn't apply themselves tirelessly. In America we all this "CHANGE you can believe in," because it's more fair that way

Keep it in the CEsspool.



Flying lotus, school does not guarantee anything. Your own motivation and ability will make you succeed. School only provides the tools. And when it comes to 3d animation, employers will be most interested in your portfolio. Make sure you do top notch work and you'll be able to get into the door almost anywhere.

Do not rely on having a degree / certificate from an institution to get you in.

 

[Piobaire]

Originally Posted by FlyingLotus

Im taking a loan out for approx 50k for art school in january (3d animation). This covers tuition and living expenses for the 1 year intensive course. Its a really good school apparently - but im still nervous about the year ending, being 25 years old, jobless and my life being screwed from debt.

Everyone is encouraging me saying its an investment in my future, but im still nervous about it.
Anyone had any experiences, or words of wisdom ?

What is the six month hire rate out of this program and what is the annual salary average at hire and say, five years out.

Pretty much, there's your answer.

After two grad degrees I was left with a 74k student loan. All that did was cover tuition, books, fees, etc. and I had to earn my living expenses. Best 74k I ever spent.

Dark, if you can still take advantage of the amortizing your loans program, do it. I amortized mine over 30 years and pay 1.8% interest. I intend to take the entire 30 years to pay off these loans! It's about as close to free money as you're ever going to get.

 

[zarathustra]

Originally Posted by Piobaire

Dark, if you can still take advantage of the amortizing your loans program, do it. I amortized mine over 30 years and pay 1.8% interest. I intend to take the entire 30 years to pay off these loans! It's about as close to free money as you're ever going to get.

I assume you are talking about Federal Loans, no? The private loan consolidation companies scare me. There just seems like something is off with the ones i have seen.

As to the OP, it sucks, but what are you going to do -- Work at McDonalds?

 

[Get Smart]

a friend of ours who is also Canadian went to art school for 3D animation (not sure which school) and found it hard to get a job after she graduated (sounds like a similar program as yours, an intensive 1 year)...but she did finally land a job tho it took a while. I'm nearly positive she went on student loans as well, tho IME nearly everyone *I've* personally known who went to art school at Art Center in Pasadena (programs ranging from product design to fine art and in between) had rich parents that paid in cash.

but knowing you'll have 50k to pay back should hopefully provide enough motivation to seriously kick ass during the program.

 

[crazyquik]

How motivated to move are you after completing this program? If you're willing to move all the way across the country, or to the US, then you may have better job options coming out than wanting to stay relatively close to home.

 

[Piobaire]

Originally Posted by zarathustra

I assume you are talking about Federal Loans, no? The private loan consolidation companies scare me. There just seems like something is off with the ones i have seen.

As to the OP, it sucks, but what are you going to do -- Work at McDonalds?

This was through Sallie Mae. Consolidated, amortized of 30 years, electronic withdrawal from my checking, and good payment history all added up to 1.8% interest. Each of those things lowered the interest rate.

 

[dave]

what school are you going to? messed up thing is that I went to school for 5 years for the exact same thing and finished 10 years or so ago, and had the same amt. of loan debt roughly.

my how times have changed.

anyhow, in terms of getting a job afterwards, if you're looking SOLELY at character animation, you'll have a tough time. if you consider post-prod. you'll be way better off. (make better $$$ too) to that end, I've been in the industry since 98 and I paid off my loans 3 years ago.

-work HARD while you're in school
-be nice to everyone you meet there. (one of them may be your boss)
-work up a badass demo reel

once you've got all that you're ready to roll.

 

[DNW]

Originally Posted by Piobaire

Dark, if you can still take advantage of the amortizing your loans program, do it. I amortized mine over 30 years and pay 1.8% interest. I intend to take the entire 30 years to pay off these loans! It's about as close to free money as you're ever going to get.

If I could get the 1.8%, heck, even 3% consolidation loan, I'd do it in a heart beat. Unfortunately, I haven't seen those rates for consolidation loans anywhere.

 

[noorotic]

I'm up to roughly 70k in student loans right now and I have one year left. It's pretty frightening so I try not to think about it...Whenever I meet other students, I like to ask how much they owe so far..

 

[Dakota rube]

The numbers being tossed around here are simply mind-numbing. RubeBabeIII will spend about $11K this year on tuition, room/board, books, etc. Granted, she's attending a public university, but still...

 

[DNW]

Originally Posted by Dakota rube

The numbers being tossed around here are simply mind-numbing. RubeBabeIII will spend about $11K this year on tuition, room/board, books, etc. Granted, she's attending a public university, but still...

Wait until you see the results of the poll I've just put up. The newly educated generation, me included, is so fucked!