Duke Grad Student Secretly Lived In a Van to Escape Loan Debt

[BrAinPaiNt]

Duke Grad Student Secretly Lived In a Van to Escape Loan Debt

By the time Ken Ilgunas was wrapping up his last year of undergraduate studies at the University of Buffalo in 2005, he had no idea what kind of debt hole he'd dug himself into.

He had majored in the least marketable fields of study possible — English and History — and had zero job prospects after getting turned down for no fewer than 25 paid internships.

"That was a wake-up call," he told Business Insider. "I had this huge $32,000 student debt and at the time I was pushing carts at Home Depot, making $8 an hour. I was just getting kind of frantic."

Back then, student loans had yet to become the front page news they are today. Ilgunas could have simply deferred his loans or declared forbearance. He also could have asked his parents (who were more than willing to help) for a leg up. He could have thrown up his hands and gone to grad school until the job market bounced back.

Read the rest of the story and see the pictures HERE

Pretty interesting story.

 

[CowboyMcCoy]

Cool story. English is a pretty useless major. I wish I had studied something else. But I had an English professor who was always trying to find a way someone could live on campus, as in not in a dorm, and still attend. I ought to send him this article. We still talk via social media.

 

[WoodysGirl]

There's no way I could live like that voluntarily...

I hate having student loans, but I always considered them an investment into my future. I wasn't going to sweat a little (well, big) payment every month if it'll afford me the a good lifestyle.

 

[Jammer]

There's no way I could live like that voluntarily...

I hate having student loans, but I always considered them an investment into my future. I wasn't going to sweat a little (well, big) payment every month if it'll afford me the a good lifestyle.

I understand what you're saying, but I think in his case his student loans were not an investment into his future as his degree was worthless. It led to an $8 an hour job.

 

[WoodysGirl]

I understand what you're saying, but I think in his case his student loans were not an investment into his future as his degree was worthless. It led to an $8 an hour job.

I have a journalism degree and never worked a day at a newspaper. I had an $8 job at a bank with almost the same amount of debt about a semester before I graduated.

Everybody has a different life path, so I'm not judging. Just saying I was operating under similar circumstances with a liberal arts degree and no prospects. I got lucky and got in a field which allowed me to make a good living and still use my writing skills.

But as the article pointed out, he had options, deferment, forebearance, at least until he could find something a little more lucrative. He took an extreme position and is fortunate it worked out for him.

 

[QT]

I read this story earlier...

Even with that degree, this guy seems smart enough to adapt to most job opportunities.

Plus, this story probably will make him noticable and someone will reach out to offer him a good job.

Much respect.

 

[khiladi]

Every banker in the world will say, "See, if you buckle down and work hard, you can pay off your debt like this guy. So it's your fault." Then they'll follow that up with shifting debt to the Federal Reserve, because you know, it's all about saving the common man's job. There is no way in the world college should be costing this much money in the first place.

 

[T-RO]

I hear countless stories of people abusing the system...and we taxpayers are going to be paying back a lot of these loans.

I've seen people funding cars, trips and drugs with that financing. And there are countless occasions where students are financing degrees like sociology and history...where they will be in debt forever.

A lot of it ultimately is collusion between big government and big business (in this case the amazingly lucrative and corrupt universities.)

 

[TheDude]

Every banker in the world will say, "See, if you buckle down and work hard, you can pay off your debt like this guy. So it's your fault." Then they'll follow that up with shifting debt to the Federal Reserve, because you know, it's all about saving the common man's job. There is no way in the world college should be costing this much money in the first place.

First its a fallacy that everyone should have a college degree. Second, for a long time, kids have been pushed to thinking that "all we need is the piece of paper" so they get the liberal arts, history degrees and enter a job market where structural unemployment continue to rise (you don't need 40 accountants and book keepers pour over dot matrix green sheets with excel and other tools available)

Not following your banker analogy, but I agree with your last point. There is just no way college should cost this much. The reason it does is that it has been sold to all families and kids that you "MUST HAVE" a college degree. THat has increased some demand, but most colleges have just increased class sizes and/or cut classes. The costs end up in a top heavy bueracracy, tenured staff, bloated pensions, etc. Similar to health care, people are predisposed to accept "it costs ehat it costs" and do not challenge the structure.

I got an MBA, and that did open some doors for me. From a true educational benefit, I did not get much out of the books as opposed to the soft skills of working with others, public presentations since I had an undergrad in business.

Its been well noted that there are shortage of engineers, kids are just now catching on that they cannot use college as a four year end goal, but it should translate nto a demanded skillset.

 

[DFWJC]

He went to Duke--one the more expensive schools in the nation--for only 2,500/semester?