The Money Pit

I've gone online to find all the student loan debt I actually have between Stafford and Perkins loans. It could be worse. I could have been an out of state student or a med student or had undergraduate debt as well. Still, it is an English Assload of debt (not to be confused with the Metric Assload of debt).

It was higher than I expected because I didn't realize I have that much in Perkins loans. Which brings up a sore point. The university set up exit interviews for people with Perkins loans as that is a requirement of the program. You don't go to the interview, then the school can withhold your transcript and other nasty things. I remember filling out a form at the beginning of the semester concerning the financial aid office and checking a box saying I would like an email reminder to set up an interview in April. I never got that email reminder and those Perkins interviews were last week. Instead of having a nice 20 minute interview now I have to fill out some paperwork. However that paperwork isn't at this campus, but at the Bloomington campus! It appears it can be mailed to me so I don't have to drive an hour to Bloomington, but I would like to note that for the past year Indiana University has no idea how to distribute financial aid and the student body (undergrad and graduate) is pretty damn sick of it.

Back to the English Assload of debt: now I get to run the numbers through Sallie Mae to see how much of a monthly payment I can save by consolidation. Instead of paying it all back in 10 years I can stretch it out to 25 years. Yeah me! You never know I could land an actual high paying job that would allow me to pay it off early. No I can't be that lucky.

Can someone explain to me why the job market is so crappy now?