Would You Like Fries With That?

 ***I’m feeling snarky today.  You’ve been warned.***

The New York Times ran a story yesterday titled “Placing the Blame as Students Are Buried in Debt.” It features the travails of 26 year old Cortney Munna who graduated from New York University in 2005 with more than $100,000 in student loan debt.  Nearly 5 years after graduation, Ms Munna still has almost the whole amount to pay off.

The article neatly lays out the list of corporate baddies who preyed ruthlessly on Ms Munna, laying the lion’s share of the blame at the feet of her alma mater, arguing that the university “had an obligation to counsel students like Ms. Munna, who got in too far over their heads.”  Poor Ms Munna was taken advantage of by everyone with whom she came into contact, it seems.  The only person who remains blameless in all of this is poor Ms Munna herself.

I looked up the fees for NYU on their website.  A basic education at this fine institution costs a commuter student, which Ms Munna was, $40,082 a year.  Assuming that she was a perfect student who never had to add/drop a class, changed majors, or had to retake a class for any reason, the total cost of a four year degree is $160,328.  She’s lucky she only owes the $100,000.  I don’t understand her surprise at the total amount of her bill.  Do they not teach mathematics in New York?

The bottom line is that Ms Munna went to a very expensive school.  She knew the cost; her mother knew the cost, but they both decided to ignore the tally.  As her mother said, “All I could see was college, and a good college and how proud I was of her.”  I understand motherly pride, but was there no pause when Sallie Mae refused to loan them any more money because of the extreme debt they had amassed?  They charged headlong over to Citibank and borrowed another $40,000.

Now Ms Munna would like some government agency to swoop in and make her debt go away since she’s unable to earn enough to pay it back.  Didn’t I tell you?  She majored in religious and women’s studies.  What kind of job can you get with a degree in feminism?  Something in San Francisco that pays $20 an hour (that’s equivalent to earning $12 in the rest of the country).  It just seems to be common sense to me that if you’re going to get a 6-figure education, you should make sure that a 7-figure job is waiting for you at the end of it.

I find it funny and a little ironic that Ms Munna spent 150-grand and 4 years learning how to hate men, and now is whining to the newspaper about how “the Man” should bail her out.