Filed under: News, The Economy
![Kelli Space 200,000 College Debt]()
Lack Of Dignity.
Debt.
If there are two things that better describe the state of America right now, I've yet to hear them. In the depths of our current recession, we have seen more and more people resort to drastic measures to keep the lights on. So this story shouldn't come as much of a surprise, but that doesn't make it any less pathetic:
Sign No. 341 that our kids need some kind of financial education in high school: Northeastern alum Kelli Space has launched a website called Two Hundred Thou. Yes, you guessed it: Space borrowed close to that amount (when you tack on interest) to attend college, and is currently making $891 payments to Sallie Mae each month that she can't afford, even with a full-time job.
How did she find herself in this pickle? By following the "romantic advice" that the "cost of tuition should never keep you from attending a great school." What's a girl to do? Why ask you to pay her debt!
"Now, with your help, I can fix the mistake I made 5 years ago-as an 18-year-old, financially-unintelligent high school graduate," writes Space, who includes a handy chart on her site that explains that she just needs to find 300,000 Americans willing to donate 67 cents to pay it all off. To date she has raised about $1,811.
According to her blog, because she can no longer defer payment or consolidate her loans, Space's payment will balloon from a manageable $891/month to around $1600 per next year. Yikes.
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Hollywood U: Celebs and Higher Ed
They have fame, fortune and are blessed with ability to entertain. Acting and singing are part of their repertoires and they make outrageous sums of money... but how many of them have higher education?
BV has taken the liberty to highlight just a few celebrities who have hit the books at one point or another and some who even obtained college degrees. Welcome to Hollywood U!
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Hollywood U: Celebs and Higher Ed
They have fame, fortune and are blessed with ability to entertain. Acting and singing are part of their repertoires and they make outrageous sums of money... but how many of them have higher education?
BV has taken the liberty to highlight just a few celebrities who have hit the books at one point or another and some who even obtained college degrees. Welcome to Hollywood U!
Hollywood U: Celebs and Higher Ed
Alicia Keys - Accepted to Columbia University
After graduating valedictorian of the Professional Performing Arts School in Manhattan, a 16-year-old Keys was accepted to Columbia University in New York. However, the talented songstress decided to drop-out and forgo a college ed to pursue her musical career.
Hollywood U: Celebs and Higher Ed
Sean Combs - Attended Howard University
Hip-hop music mogul Sean Combs briefly attended Howard University in 1987 with a major in business administration. Combs honed his chops promoting parties and meeting many of the producers who would go on to help him found Bad Boy Records. Combs dropped out of Howard in his second year to become of of the most successful and powerful individuals in music and fashion with an estimated net worth of $400 million.
Hollywood U: Celebs and Higher Ed
David Banner - Attended Southern University and the University of Maryland (grad school)
No stranger to contradiction, southern rapper David Banner is as well-read as they come. He is one of the few rappers that can boast a college degree as well as an MS in business! His music can often be as polarized as his life as he integrates raunchy and violent themes with conscious fare on his albums.
Hollywood U: Celebs and Higher Ed
Denzel Washington - Graduated from Fordham University
Dr. Washington? Believe it or not, everyone's favorite actor once aspired to be a doctor. But while at Fordham he caught the acting bug and switched his major to journalism. By the time he graduated with a B.A. in Journalism and Drama in 1977, Washington already had his sights set on acting. Nearly two decades later most would agree that that was a pretty smart decision.
Hollywood U: Celebs and Higher Ed
Boris Kodjoe - Graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University
Before he was a film and television heartthrob, actor Boris Kodjoe was well on his way to being a tennis superstar. Kodjoe went to school at Virginia Commonwealth University, where he played for the Rams. After a back injury halted his sprorting aspirations, the poor guy had to settle for being a model... what a sad life.
Hollywood U: Celebs and Higher Ed
Nicole Ari Parker - Graduated from New York University
Born in Baltimore Maryland, Nicole used to pretend that she was Willona from the TV show 'Good Times.' After being named the best actress in Maryland at a high school competition, it further solidified her desire to act. Parker was accepted New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and graduated with an acting degree in 1993.
Hollywood U: Celebs and Higher Ed
Common - Attended Florida A&M University
This Chicago legend attended Florida A&M University to study business administration. It wasn't too long afterward though that Common was featured in the Unsigned Hype column of the 'Source Magazine' and dropped out of college to be a rapper.
Hollywood U: Celebs and Higher Ed
Duane Martin - Graduated from New York University
The former 'All of Us' star played basketball for NYU's team and was even drafted into the NBA by the New York Knicks. While he may not be acting at the moment, Martin is currently the owner of both a sports agency and a real estate company so that college ed may be paying off after all.
Hollywood U: Celebs and Higher Ed
Will Smith - Could have gone to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The biggest actor on the planet had a chance to go to one of the country's premiere colleges, but turned it down to pursue his music career. "My mother, who worked for the School Board of Philadelphia, had a friend who was the admissions officer at MIT. I had pretty high SAT scores and they needed black kids, so I probably could have gotten in. But I had no intention of going to college," said Smith.
Hollywood U: Celebs and Higher Ed
Folks, I gotta be honest here, this woman brought this on herself, and has nobody else to blame. Namely, her insistence on going to an elite private university because the "cost of tuition should never keep you from attending a great school." Bull.
Space's major/degree is curiously not listed anywhere on the site, but my guess is she likely majored in something that didn't have the greatest earning potential, even if the economy were booming. Common sense says you should choose a college and major that give you the most bang for your buck. Majors like Psychology, Fine Arts, Social Work and Elementary Education deliver the most anemic returns on investment, whereas Economics, Computer Science and practically any major containing the word "Engineering" will pay off handsomely. In short, it makes no sense to spend $200,000 to get a job whose earning potential tops out around $35,000. Maybe $200,000 for a medical or law degree, which could make you lots of money is sensible by comparison. Basic math here.
In this economy, the school you graduate from seldom matters as much as what you did while you were there, and its relevance to your eventual career. Internships and other such real-work experiences are what separate one candidate from the rest of the pack. While her alma mater is a great school, the reality is Ms. Space could have probably gone to any state school (or for than matter, an HBCU, most of which are great values for the buck) and gotten an equally good education for far less. A full list of "Best College Values" can be found here.
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I wish Ms. Space the best in her quest to beg her way to financial freedom. And I hope anyone considering which college to attend looks at hers as a cautionary tale, not merely one to gawk at.
Questions: Assuming you landed a job in your chosen major, do you consider your college degree worth the investment? Is Ms. Space's begging for money a shameless ploy for help, or merely a sign of these economic times?
Jay Anderson is a freelance writer from Washington, DC, whose work has been featured in the Washington Post and on NPR. When he's not busy talking smack here, he runs the award-winning blog
AverageBro.com. Follow him via Twitter @AverageBro.
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