This past December, Rachel Lauria and her boyfriend Jason ended up on their bathroom floor, both throbbing in abdominal pain. “Jason was so sick he was making sounds he’d never want anyone else to hear,” she said. Jason was recently dropped from his parents’ insurance, and was taking a leave of absence from Buffalo State. They were faced with what in hindsight seems like a stupid question; “Do I want to die, or do I want to pay the hospital bill?”
For many graduating college students, the preventative measure of finding health insurance takes a backseat to more pressing issues like paying off credit card debt, student loans, and, of course, finding a job. The money you borrowed and the services you took advantage of in college stop at graduation, and it’s up to you to get ready for the “real world.”
Some of your fellow seniors will go on to professional schooling while others jump into a full-time job, but regardless, after graduating you’re looking at six months until you have to start dishing out cash for student loans, depending on your plan. According to the federal student aid website, you’re liable for up to a nine percent interest rate on your loans. Help from the site is limited to a few pointers on how to save money, including one that reads, “If you reduce the amount you borrow now, you will have less to repay later.” Sage advice.
Student Debt
Lauria considers herself lucky to have found a job right after graduating in 2005 from the University at Buffalo with a degree in Spanish. She had to pay off her debt, and took a job as a legal secretary, a job she would find difficult to give up. “I can’t quit my job—I get free insurance.” Lauria says she works with people who never went to college, after she had to struggle for years to pay off her thousands of dollars in loans. This situation is becoming a reality for many college students.
Student loans have been on the back burner for your entire college career, until now. According to a national student loan survey conducted by student loan provider Nellie Mae in 2002, 58 percent of students answered, “Student loans were very or extremely important in allowing them to attend the college of their choice.” Whether you took them out to help with tuition costs or so you could afford Jim’s Steak Out every Friday night, six months after graduation they come looking for payment.
Along with the loans that have been paying for your degree, that tiny piece of plastic may be catching up to you as well. The Tampa Tribune reported on September 21, 2006 that “college graduates today can expect to owe $19,000 in student loans and nearly $3,000 in credit card charges.”
In terms of being able to pay off credit card debt, MSN Personal Finance expert Liz Pulliam Weston told The New York Sun in a May 17, 2005 story, “If a graduate pays the minimum on the average $3,262 credit-card debt, he or she will be sending in the last payment in 18 years.” Whether you signed up for one in the Commons for a free sandwich or not, the credit card is one of the quickest and easiest ways to fall into a hole too deep to dig yourself out of alone.
In Maine, a bill is now being proposed that would require parental consent for anyone under 21 to sign up for a credit card. The Portland Press reported that the bill was introduced by Senator John Nutting to cut down on student credit card debt, though he was met with staunch opposition from Maine-based banks, who said that banks do not aggressively push credit cards on college students. This bill would force credit card companies to re-think their marketing strategies that typically focus heavily on young adults under 21. One of the stories reported is that of a graduate from the University of Maine who brought home $8,000 in credit card debt.
“You gotta be optimistic towards whatever you’re doing. Attitude’s everything,” says Ryan Bianchi, a senior media studies major. Despite being worried about the financial hardships ahead of him after graduation, he tries to maintain a positive view towards post-graduation life. To begin to chip away at his student loans and new health insurance tab, Bianchi plans on returning to his native Rochester and transferring to a full-time work week while staying with his parents.
Healthcare
Rachel Lauria was in the hospital for six hours—twice as long as her boyfriend— but she was only charged a $50 co-pay, while he was left with a $1,800 bill hanging over his head. After graduation, seniors are pinned down by loans and debt on top of paying the bills and affording basic necessities. Among all of this, the one thing that is arguably most important is overlooked. A family’s health insurance typically only covers young adults until age 19 unless they are full-time students, according to allaboutthebenefits.com, a website funded by Aetna Health Insurance. Using a very upfront website with streaming videos, a podcast, and language that makes them a little too eager to be friends with their visitors, Aetna points out the essential need for health coverage. “If you have a mysterious pain in your side (appendicitis most often strikes people between the ages of 10 and 30) and you need an appendectomy, it may cost you more than $12,000. Yikes!” Using a hypothetical situation that can apply to many here in Buffalo or any snow-covered area, the website brings up the costs of breaking your arm while skiing. “Your total bill for prescriptions, a stay in the recovery room, X-rays, and various other health care costs could add up to $8,000.”
For someone who lives and works in New York State, insurance from Independent Health comes to a monthly fee of $187.03 under the Healthy NY Plan, a program developed by Gov. George Pataki to benefit working-class families. Lauria says Healthy NY did not offer the services she was looking for. “The commercial has a little boy running around in this mansion. Really it should be showing people like me, taking herbs to avoid getting sick.” For graduates who can’t find a job even though they may reside in New York, unemployment causes the Healthy NY price to soar to $630.10 a month.
According to Rural Metro, an ambulance service in the greater Buffalo area, a basic ambulance ride to a hospital only ten miles away can cost anywhere from $500-$600. If it’s an emergency and a paramedic is required to monitor you and possibly push drugs into your system, you are looking at spending about $900. After being taken to Buffalo General Hospital and rushed to the emergency room, if necessary, you will have just acquired roughly one thousand dollars in debt, says a representative from Kaleida Health, a popular local health care provider. Throw in the physician’s fee, possible psych evaluations, and overnight observation and you’ve bumped that number up to about three thousand dollars.
Finding a Job
Then, there’s the dismal job market you’ve been warned about for years. Popular degrees such as communications, psychology, English, and history are proving useless as far as jobs go. According to a post-graduation survey done on the UB class of 2003, more than half of those employed with a degree in history make less then $25,000 a year. The same can be said for those graduating with a degree in political science or psychology. Some of the job titles of those responding to the survey include tutor, painter, cook, cashier, and nanny.
According to alumnus Jim Haumesser, there are opportunities out there for those who go after them. Haumesser graduated in February ’04 with a bachelor’s degree in business management and a concentration in human resources. Now working full-time at FedEx as a customer service customs broker, he looks back at his experience at UB and offers advice to those who will be entering the full-time job market soon. “Networking is number one…absolutely talk to family, neighbors, anyone who knows about a job.” Haumesser explains that you need to use all of your available resources, “even if it’s just to get your foot in the door.”
This advice runs parallel to Laura Albert’s experiences. A graduate from the class of 2006 with a B.A. in history and a minor in education, she now lives with her parents while attending graduate school at St. John Fisher in Rochester. “Meet as many people as you can and make connections,” Albert suggests. “Keep in contact with professors and people here because you may need them for references or help finding a job.” Despite her original plans to be elsewhere and not living at home, Albert is confident in her position. “I have to get my degree first, and this is the cheapest way to do it.” Now working full-time and going to school as a full-time student, life seems difficult but manageable. “It’s definitely hard, and I had to reset my priorities because time is valuable.”
The hourly wage being offered for graduates with only a bachelor’s degree is less than ideal. As of January 1, The New York State minimum wage increased from $6.75 to $7.15 an hour. According to a survey done by UB’s Career Services department on the graduating class of 2003, one year after receiving their degree, 45 percent of history majors were found to be making under $20,000 a year. Assuming one works a 40-hour week, that breaks itself down to roughly $9.62 an hour. The degree you spent thousands of dollars pursuing has given you an hourly pay that is $2.47 higher than minimum wage. 42.9 percent of architecture majors from the class of 2003 were found to be making under $20,000 a year. Despite the misconception that most would go into graduate school and begin making the big bucks, 50 percent of the architecture majors from 2003 went straight into full-time careers.
Continuing Your Education
If you want to do the most to beat out the guy sitting next to you for a job interview, graduate school may be the answer. The Chronicle of Higher Education reported on September 1, 2006, “The number of foreign students admitted to American graduate schools rose in 2006 for the second straight year.” The reason behind this may lie in the basic salary differences between that of a graduate with a four year degree and that of a student who went on to graduate school. According to the 2003 UB survey on those who had completed graduate school the year before, 50 percent of those who went to graduate school for psychology were making between $35,000 and $39,999. 41.3 percent of students who only received a bachelor’s degree in psychology and went into the full-time job market were making under $20,000. Along with potentially increasing your eventual income a great deal, graduate school defers student loans while you are attending.
Anywhere between 35 and 40 percent of undergrads will go into some form or graduate or professional school, according to Dr. Daniel J. Ryan, Director of Career Services. “Many individuals in high demand majors—engineering, nursing, and accounting—find that a great deal of the recruiting season actually takes place in the fall, and so many of these students already have accepted offers,” says Ryan. However, this is not a requirement for the masses. Senior history major Bill Pates seems to have a laid back approach to the idea of grad school that other seniors are bound to embrace. After graduating and applying to be an Amherst police officer, Pates plans on going to some form of night schooling or waiting until he’s finished with public protection. Regarding this last semester, he says “just enjoy it while you’re still here…but be prepared when you get out.”
The trials of debt, job hunting, and future education decisions are without a doubt going to follow this year’s senior class into the real world. According to Dr. Ryan, however, our time at UB has already begun to prepare us for what lies ahead. “The college experience is designed to expose students to the diversity of the academy, and as a result, of the world of work.”
