Student Loan Debt - Is your passion worth it?

It's worth it if you can afford to pay off the debt when you are finished. If you don't think you can get a decent job with the degree and pay off the loans, then it isn't worth it.

Passion is important but if you can't pay it off, then all the passion in the world won't help you.

You should look at a different university. You don't have to pay that much.

Exactly engineer.

bydesign, what state do you live in? In state rate have to be less.

What about scholarships?

Below is a link to a website where you can use a scale to put in how much you would want to pay and go from there.

http://www.collegeview.com/collegesearch/index.jsp

Personally, I think it's a total scam how much some universities charge.

Anyone hiring with half a brain in their head will look at 2 otherwise intelligent candidates and realize the one who went to the more "on paper" prestigious school most likely just racked up a lot more debt.

http://www.collegeview.com/collegesearch/index.jsp

How can anyone else answer your subjective question? And, if it wasn't the debt, but the time involved, someone would ask if the time spent is worth it. And, your passion is subjective. How passionate are you for architecture? Very? Your "very" and another "very" might be very different.

And, will the looming debt haunt you during your years of study? Just by making a decision doesn't mean the question will be put out of one's mind. All thoughts to ponder.

Have you looked at financial aid at all? Most people now get financial aid (the kind that doesn't need to be paid back). Other options are to go part time while you work. I think it is worth it - but I also think you need to pick a passion where you are employable afterwards -- I would think architecture would be but you should check that out. To me what good is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a degree that you cannot not get a job at then it is not worth it.

I agree about the scams of the price of college. I am looking at this now with my daughter - and have found out - don't let the high price of one college throw you - compared to a lower priced. Many of these higher priced colleges give lots of aid - one was noted as having a 99% of students receive aid. I said why don't they just lower the price to something reasonable and then they won't need to give aid?

A senior I know is getting over 85% of her fees being paid via aid to play softball - it is not an athletic scholarship and it is not need based. Just called aid --- this is a school over $45k a year.

Yes.

When it comes to architecture, the bachelor degree isn't the one that counts. It's where you get your masters degree. That's the degree that needs the gravitas and academic weight.

and passing the boards, sometime later on

I'm a retired landscape architect, and was licensed for land design (site design, large or small) and city planning; not a building architect, though I was pretty engaged with building architect colleagues over decades, as well as engineers. A lot of us in the different fields (in my own experience) worked together, and once in a while butt heads. I remember a tussle with a then renown engineering firm re their grading plan for a mutual project. My boss agreed with me. Their boss agreed with me. Zip. But other than that pissant, most of my experience was that we listened to each other and got the reasons why.

For me it was worth it, I'm so glad I studied all that, wouldn't have missed it for the world.

I'd listen, if I were you, re others posting here about what school to pick.

Take a look at what the graduates of different schools are doing . Not just their famous grads. Schools keep track of that stuff. See if there is a local association meeting you can attend as a guest - find out what grads (recent and not-so-recent ) are talking about. Architecture grads aren't always doing what you think they're doing. It can be a lot of grunt work for a lot of years (assuming you can get into a design firm - if design is your interest).

$150,000 isn't bad if you can get into a design firm with good progression. It's horrible if you can't get into the kind of work you have a passion for.

My desk buddy's hubby graduated as an architect about six years ago. Got into an architecture firm - after four years of frustration trying to get what he considered to be meaningful design assignments (and better pay) he switched to becoming a personal fitness trainer. He's making better money and has more time to spend with his wife. They're discussing him going to spend a year at chiropractic college - it's a fast-track to $$ here.

It can come to it, the choice, if you care about what you do, and all the reasons for or against.

Caring about your interests is the basic question. Exploring all this it the point of learning. But enthusiasms can wane; also come back again.

I'm not clear on why you separate going to school at all, and the worthiness and cost, re one interest.

Oh, wait, I know ehBeth knows that.

So this weekend I was at the UW Madison graduation and I wasn't surprised to see several hundred kids graduate with social studies degrees but a very small fraction of the kids had engineering degrees. There were between 20-30 kids with Pharmacy degrees, but the social science degrees #'s were in the hundreds, between those groups of kids, who do you think is going to pay off their college loans and which ones are going to want someone else to pay for their semi-worthless degrees?

Bernie sanders is my first choice but I am now discovering Jill Stein has a better plan for student debt. This 4 minute video from last year is very informative.

If you pay attention you will get a very good college education.

It isn't worth it.