Screw College Loans

Justin Medina writes to us with $230,000 in student loans so far and says, 

“I earned a bachelors degree in Aeronautical Science from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Daytona Beach campus in 2005. Aeronautical Science is pretty much a fancy name for a “Pilot”. To my surprise I racked up $180,000 in student loans from the classes I took plus the flight training courses to become a pilot. It is a common belief that all pilots make a lot of money. This couldn’t be anymore far from the truth it makes me sick just thinking about it. My first year as an airline pilot, I made a whopping $24,000. No that is not a typo, I said my first year I made $24,000. After all the hard work, time, effort, sweat, and money, I could be making more money working at the local McDonald’s flipping burgers. Whenever I tell anyone what my salary was my first year and how much student loans I have, they often ask how I am surviving. The answer is simple, I don’t make enough money to pay my student loans off so I just don’t pay them. After a few years of not paying my student loans back, the interest and unpaid payments started racking up. Today I have over $230,000 in student loan debt. If I were to start paying the full payment on my loans plus my car payment, I would be left with no money for food, rent, or utilities. Yes maybe 15 years down the road (depending on the economy) I will start to make decent money, but by then I will have close to $1 million dollars in debt (ok so maybe not that much, but you get the point). I just don’t know what to do. Ill continue being a pilot being responsible for thousands of passengers per year. It was and will always be my dream job. Just remember how little your pilots are making the next time you fly. Tips are always accepted ;o)”

Justin is now eligible for a split in the money we collect from donations.

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Tags: embry riddle aeronautical university, erau, justin, justin medina, massive student debt, medina, pilot, pilot loans, student loans

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 13th, 2009 at 9:15 pm and is filed under Students Seeking Help. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.