Home

Journalism student has one year left in the bachelor degree program and doesn't want to take on student loans.

By Ms. Communicate
| March 28, 2009

Dear Ms. Communicate,

I'm about a year away from a bachelor's degree in journalism, however with the economy and the research I've done into private student loans, I don't want to continue at the university. It's just too expensive.

The option I am considering is getting two associates degrees at a community college: one in English and one in communications.

With those degrees would I be able to find a job in the online journalism field, or should I just suck it up and go further in debt to the corrupt institutions that hand out private loans like candy?

Thanks for your help.

Dear Student,

I agree with you that the student loan system is very bad. The loans are now owned directly by the banks, the interest rates are appalling, and most students are compelled to go into debt because post-secondary education is so expensive. Plus there’s those boring things such as rent and other bills to continue to pay. As evil as loans are, however, if they’re the only route then you might be stuck.

I have some suggestions and some questions for you to think about: How about looking into the comparative costs of the college degrees compared to the one final year at the university program you mentioned you’re in. If money matters this much to you, it’s worth it to do this comparison between various programs. But wouldn’t you also have to get loans if you were to take a college program? Is it too late to apply to college for the September 2009 academic year? Do you have the option to take a leave, work full time for a year, try to save money to reduce your need for loans, then decide which direction you want to go in?

As for finding work in online journalism, I can’t answer that since even if there was a way to know who (if anyone) is being hired today, and what their credentials are, etc, so much is likely to change between now and a year or more when you will have completed your program(s). If you don’t want to be in any more debt to the loaning system, and if this is very important to you, you have the option of dropping out.

Ms. C