The Marble Hill School For International Studies

On Friday, March 31, 2006, journalist and author of Generation Debt Anya Kamenetz came to Marble Hill to talk to our upperclassmen about financing college, what steps they need to take to be successful in the field of their choice, and how to keep their personal debt to a minimum.  During her talk, Anya told our students that the rising costs of college has been one of the contributing factors to the fact that her generation has undertaken more debt than any other generation in American history.  She informed them about the different types of loans available for financing college and which ones to try to avoid.   Since getting a credit card with a high limit is much easier today, Anya warned our students not to charge anything that they could not pay off right away.  (She mentioned some people she interviewed that were tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt right out of college.)  One underlying theme that goes against the conventional advice for college-bound seniors was this: one really should take into consideration the cost of the college that they want to attend.  Spending (and that’s what you do when you take out a loan, because you have to pay that money back) $80, 000 for an undergraduate degree, even from the top school in the nation, may not make sense for you.  It depends on what you want to do after college.

You need a plan.  A college diploma is not a one-way ticket to success.  Anya said that the first step towards success is figuring out what you want to do.  The next step is to figure out what you need to get there (a good resource is the Occupational Outlook Handbook: www.bls.gov/oco/ ) – what level of education do you need?  What personal contacts do you need?  Do you need experience?  Internships and networking are vital to career success.

Here is what some of our students wrote about Anya’s talk:

“Anya Kamenetz’s visit to Marble Hill was an inspirational and educational one.  Sharing her knowledge regarding student debt and how to avoid it allowed many us, especially seniors, to be aware of the financial obstacles that college students may face.”

“Anya Kamenetz’s talk about debt and how to handle it in college was captivating to say the least.  She told us about how people should prepare for college financially and what steps we should take to avoid falling into a pit of debt.”

“Anya's talk was encouraging for those who started off bad.  Inspiration to continue through life's hardships, revelaing to us that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.”

Resources:
www.anyakamenetz.com
http://anyakamenetz.blogspot.com
www.bls.gov/oco
A Map to the Future

Here are some pictures of the visit.