Student Loans: What happened to personal responsibility?

When I was 17, I considered many colleges. As the process unfolded, I realized I would have to stay close to home and attend a public college or university. This narrowed my choices to Rhode Island College and the University of Rhode Island. At the time (1994), RIC was about $2,900 per year (It’s about $5,000 now), about $1,500 per year less than URI. It was also much closer to my house. I was happy at RIC, but I didn’t consider it the perfect situation. At the time, I would have liked a more prestigious school, but thankfully I focused more on important criteria.

So, why am I bringing this up 16 years later? It’s because I read an article about a woman named Cortney Munna who racked up $97,000 in student loans because she insisted on attending a prestigious school. Ms. Munna and her mother are complaining about the large amount of debt and seem intent on placing blame on lenders for lending. » read more