It's no secret that student loan debt has become a crisis in this country. Because of the predatory nature of these loans, folks are struggling to make ends meet, support their families, and get ahead in life.
So we recently asked people with student loans in the BuzzFeed Community what they currently make. Here's some of what they had to say:
1. "I finished my teaching degree from an online college. I have a little over $80,000 in student loans. I make about $3,700 a month, and my husband makes a little less. I don’t know how I will ever pay this off. The amount of income-driven repayment is way more than we can afford with other bills. I’m not sure how to dig myself out of this hole."
"We are a family of three, and we are struggling with a mortgage and two car payments. If we don’t get some kind of relief, I don’t know what I’ll do. Possibly a second job, which means I’ll probably never get to see my 3-year-old."
—Anonymous
2. "Graduated from law school with almost $400,000 in student loans. After five years of payments, my balance has increased to $500,000 due to interest. I make $70,000 (before taxes) per year as a public defender. If I can survive on this low an income once I have a family to support, I plan on working as a public defender for 10 years so I can hopefully get my loans forgiven. If not, I fear I will die before I can ever pay them off."
—Anonymous
3. "I was a single mom of two small children and was told over and over that college was the only way out of poverty. Well, I got my degree and still make less than $50,000 a year. I currently owe $130,000. I'll never be able to pay it off or purchase a home. I'm 52 and have no idea how I will retire or even live once I can't work anymore."
—Anonymous
4. "I've been in the recruiting world for nearly six years. Started at the bottom making only a couple of dollars above minimum wage, and now I make $50,000. My loans started at $114,000, and at the beginning, I was barely making ends meet and relying on credit cards (bad, I know!). After some loan repurposing, major changes in lifestyle, promotions, and a pandemic that cut back on spending and gave me some options for my monthly payments, I just got my loan balance down to $79,000. I'm proud of my progress but still defeated knowing how much more I have left to pay."
—Anonymous
5. "I’m about to turn 65. I have over $100,000 owed in student loans and regret having gone to college, as my earnings are $60,000 yearly. I have had to file bankruptcy and can’t afford to retire because I have a chronic health condition and will be paying student loans until I die. This debt should be removed for senior citizens."
—Anonymous
6. "Graduated 12 years ago into a recession with $99,000 in loans. It took almost two years for me to find full-time employment making about $75,000 a year. Took another 11 years to get my annual salary up to $127,000. As of today, I've paid over $90,000 on my loans, but thanks to predatory interest rates, my overall loan balance is still hovering around $89,000. This spring, I found a new job and was able to almost double my salary so that now I make $220,000 a year. For the first time in a decade, I feel like I might actually be able to dig myself out of debt."
"However, it still stings knowing that by the time I'm done paying off my loans, I will have paid the federal government (all of my loans are fed loans) almost $250,000, which is two and a half times the actual value of my degree. What a stupid investment. To be clear, I'm not mad about repaying the cost of my tuition or even the interest associated with it. I am mad that the total amount I will end up paying so egregiously exceeds the original amount of my loan and the cost it took to administer it. The government shouldn't be making such a profit by mortgaging the futures of its students."
—Anonymous
7. "I worked at a public library for several years and went to community college before transferring to a university to get my bachelor’s degree. I am now $51,000 in debt, am a library associate, and make about $40,000 a year. I’m passionate about libraries, but it’s hard to justify going back to school to get my master's to become a librarian if I'll increase my debt by another $30,000–$50,000, just to make $50,000 a year."
—Anonymous
8. "I went to grad school and have $98,000 in student loans. I have been paying for over eight years, and the principal has only decreased $5,000. I make $110,000 now but live in one of the most expensive cities in the US. In my area, $110,000 to support a family of four is basically nothing."
—Anonymous
9. "I regret going to veterinary school. Between undergrad and vet school, I have $360,000 in student loans. I make $125,000."
—Anonymous
10. "I went to college with absolutely no guidance or goals. I completely wasted $50,000 in student loans for a degree in theology that I never completed. I’m quite ashamed of the failure, but I learned a huge lesson as a result. Too bad it’s an expensive one. After years of working dead-end jobs for low pay, I’m now in trucking, making over $100,000 a year. Best rebound ever, but that $50,000 still haunts me when I think about it."
—Anonymous
11. "I am in debt $60,000 for a master's in education. It might have been worth it had there been a single job in the field the first three years after I graduated (teachers here start around $55,000 and often make $70,000-plus after five years, so I thought the debt was worth it). It was just after the '08 collapse, and no one was retiring because their retirement funds had all tanked. After a year, I took a job making $35,000 in another field, the same amount I was making before I got my master's. I kept trying for several more years, but no luck. By then, my certification had expired and Common Core came in, so I’d need to start over."
"I now have a health issue that would make it impossible to teach in person. Nearly 15 years later, I still make only $50,000. I’m now divorced and broke, barely able to pay rent for my studio apartment, praying that my 2007 Corolla hangs in there. I’ll never be able to buy a house. I didn’t have kids because I knew I couldn’t afford it. My life would be so much better if I’d never taken out those loans to get that degree."
—Anonymous
12. "I have a bachelor’s in interdisciplinary studies because I kept changing my major and didn’t have enough credits to graduate in anything specific. I'm $74,000 in debt. No income because I wouldn’t make enough to cover childcare, so I stay home with my kids while my husband works. I’m starting my MSW in a few months — will likely be about $115,000 in debt by the end of it and will probably be lucky to make $50,000 a year."
13. "I took out about $50,000 in student loans to attend a state school. I graduated in five and a half years (took a semester off and changed majors three times). Ended with a BA in psychology and did six months of social service, only to realize I could not do it; it was emotionally tolling and a very underpaid sector. I switched to become an administrative assistant ($52,000) at a corporate office. Over the course of 10 years, I moved to executive assistant ($64,000) and then to executive project specialist ($75,000), back to executive assistant ($80,000), and now I’m a director of operations ($120,000 plus bonus)."
"Literally until now, none of my jobs made the student loan debt worth it. I can argue that my degree has come in handy, but I can also argue I don’t use it. I still have $22,000 in federal loans and am waiting for a relief plan from the Biden administration. Either way at this point in my career, I am finally not living paycheck to paycheck. Don’t take out loans if you don’t need them."
—Anonymous
14. "I am a clinical research coordinator. I love my job and my patients, but I make $60,000 a year and have $160,000 in student debt remaining after paying toward it for 10 years. I am often told my degrees make me 'overqualified' for positions. While I do love what I do, I have a master's degree and am doing a job that doesn’t even require a degree."
—Anonymous
15. "As a suddenly single parent of five, I graduated from college at 40, hoping that my communications degree would give us all a better future. It didn't get me any job that ever topped $25,000 a year, and the interest just kept piling on, always more than I could pay monthly. Now, 18 years later, I owe more than when I graduated. If there's one thing I could undo on my life, it would be wasting four years on a worthless degree that will keep me in debt forever."
—Anonymous
16. "I was determined to be the first in my family to get a college degree. I joined the military for the GI Bill. When I got out of the military, I was living on my own and struggling to make ends meet. I ended up getting loans in order to have an apartment. I got my degree in computer info systems and thought that would be a great choice, but then the Great Recession hit. I was $40,000 in debt for that degree. A few years later, I was not getting any calls back for jobs even with my degree, so I decided to get my MBA. Added another $60,000 to what I already had, so I was in the hole for $100,000."
"I've only had one job that paid me really well — every other job I've had has paid me under $50,000 annually. Currently, I make $45,000, which is sad for my experience and education."
—Anonymous
17. "I have a master's in architecture and am currently working as an architect. Ten years in, I am currently making $100,000 a year, but I have to make money stretch, as I am paying off $300,000 in student loans."
—Anonymous
18. "I work as an event coordinator for a well-known university, making $46,000 a year. I went into college thinking I'd go into the medical field in some capacity, and I realized during the fall semester of my senior year that I was miserable with my choice. So I switched to a major that would allow me to graduate with the credits I already had. My student loans were less than $40,000 when I graduated, and I've managed to pay off around half of that number so far. But that wouldn't have been possible without the hold on the interest due to the pandemic."
—Anonymous
19. "I'm an occupational therapist in New Jersey. In order to practice, I need a master's degree, so I had to go to grad school. I graduated with about $125,000 in debt and soon made $80,000 a year. Over 10 years later, I'm at $120,000 in debt and make about $95,000 a year. I knew going into it that I would have loans forever. For me, it's not the fact that I have them; it's the payment amount each month that's impossible to maintain. Very few 18-year-old kids understand what paying $1,000 a month looks like for the next 30 years."
—Anonymous
20. "I have a master’s degree in social work. Spent the last 10-plus years working at nonprofits, making between $40,000 and $50,000 a year (even with a master's degree and professional license). I now work for a for-profit agency and make $70,000 annually. I’m about $81,000 in student loan debt and praying for public service loan forgiveness (PSLF)."
21. "I went to a state school and took longer than expected to graduate because I was dealing with depression. Graduated with a marketing degree and still have the same job I did during college (retail warehouse manager), making $40,000. My student loans equal $90,000."
—Anonymous
22. "My teacher salary in southeast Missouri was $30,800 a year. Student loan total with interest: $66,000. In June, I became a social worker making $36,000 a year."
—Anonymous
23. "I have a BA in telecommunications, making $45,000, and I'm in debt for $139,000. When I graduated 13 years ago, my debt was $115,000. I've been making payments all of those 13 years, SMH."
24. "I make $60,000 as an assistant director of an international education program. I owe $35,000 (which was my original loan amount) after paying aggressively before the pandemic. I started school over 10 years ago, went to a public school, and took out federal loans. I worked at my university during my master’s to get a tuition waiver and am barely starting to pay on the principal of the loan. Come through for us, Biden!"
—Anonymous
25. And finally, "I graduated from college in 2011 with a BS in criminal justice. I had to use loans, and it makes me cringe now, but I don't know what else I would have done. Heading off to college was just 'what you did' at that point. However, I was sure that I would land an exciting job after graduating and that I would swiftly pay back these loans. Fast-forward to 2022, and I have been working in county government for almost 10 years now. I came in at entry level, and I just recently crossed $40,000 a year. My job is pretty complex, and I definitely feel like I contribute to society; public servants are simply underpaid."
"I made payments on my student loans from around 2012 until 2020, when the pandemic freeze happened. I have made absolutely ZERO progress because of interest, so I owe the same amount I started with. This is what the naysayers don't understand: We want to pay off the loans that we signed up for, but the interest is making it impossible for us to make any progress."
—Anonymous
Do you regret your student loans? How much do you owe compared with how much you currently make? Share your experience in the comments below.
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.