Student Loans

I promised an informative post about student loans a while ago, but you're getting a bit of a rant about them for now.

I was on campus today and there was a big student initiated campaign against the cost of tuition/student loans. They claimed that student loans from the ~650 people who participated with them totaled a bit over $16.8 million. They claimed the average loan per student in our province is $26,680, up from $20,500 10 years ago.

They are complaining about this increase, which I look at and think it isn't very much given that its over 10 years. So I calculate it out, and it turns out to be an average increase of 2.67% per year. Seems about in line with inflation... what are they complaining about?

Moreover, no one is being forced to get student loans. If you don't want to be in debt, but you want a degree then you had better stretch it out over a couple more years so that you can work at the same time. I'm graduating this semester and guess how much student debt I have? ZERO. Now these people who got interest free (while in school) money from the government want their debt loads to be decreased? I'm starting to feel like the US home owner who was responsible with their mortgage/home only to see their irresponsible neighbour crying for help from the government because of their own stupidity/mistakes when the real estate market tanked in 2008.