April 25, 2017

Frank D. Lucas
10952 Northwest Expressway
Yukon, OK 73099

Dear, Mr. Lucas:

I hope you are doing well. My name is Mark Manley, Im a student at NOC/OSU. Im currently
in my second semester with hopes of getting my degree in Rangeland Management. Im writing
you on behalf of the Colleges in the United States with problems with student dropouts based on
student loan debt and how it is affecting our nations students today.
This matter of student loans and how they are becoming out of hand really worries me. Being a
student myself I get to witness first hand how much money effects our lives as full time students.
One of the biggest factors on whether or not I would go to college was based off of if I could get
a job after college that could pay off my student debt. It really is effecting the way kids coming
out of high school look at college. College shouldnt be just about how much money we have to
make to stay afloat. College is suppose to be about pursuing an education in our desired field to
support our way of lives, isnt that the American Dream? Chasing after happiness in any way we
desire. Student loans are taking away from the way college students decide on what to do with
their lives and are dictating what they do after college if they even go to college.
Student Loans are an economic value that are never ending. Loans are subjects that continue to
grow. At the end of 2003, American students and graduates owed just $253 billion in aggregate
debt; by the end of 2013, American students debt had ballooned to a total of $1.08 trillion, an
increase of over 300%, stated by (Frizell). Student loans marketing never ending involves
students digging themselves into a hole that they may not recover from. In our economy today
money is decreasing in value, being that I cant go as far for my $1. These debts are impacting
our personal lives in a huge manner. It requires us to involve our grades to pay for our college,
and if you dont get scholarships we have to rely on ours and our families life savings to pay for
college. Charlene Oldham of the Huffington Post explains the importance of preparing for these
expenses, As the prospect of college grows closer, its important to assess all the sources of
available funding to cover college costs, including savings, family income, student income,
grants and scholarships,(Huffington Post). A lot of kids now are straying away from college
because of the scare of not being able to afford it, or their parents not supporting them to go. This
creates a lot of problems for the average teenager who doesnt know exactly what they want yet.
College is becoming too much of a deciding factor in our lives.
Too many times have I seen people including myself dictate what they are going to do with their
lives based off of college and not going to college for their lives. There is a huge difference
between the two. Going to college to better our lives and further a career path we enjoy is what
college students should be doing, not choosing to do something just to pay for our bills. After
college we are going to have to have that job that pays 50,000-100,000 to stay afloat. Explained
by Charlene Oldham, Assuming the average student loan debt has a 6.8 percent interest rate
over a term of 10 years, a graduate would need to earn a salary of $51,333.60 to pay off the
average debt load if they devoted 10 percent of their gross monthly income to
payments,(Huffington Post).The requirements and pressure of those percentages are making it a
lot harder for us students to make the choice of going to college. Higher education is making
college students lives a lot harder than it should. Whether we live at home or get a house, drive
an old vehicle or brand new one, and eat out or cook dinner are all simple decisions in our lives
that our dictated by college. Every decision I feel we make as college students is based off how
much money we have instead of what is best for our lives after college. It also puts an enormous
amount of pressure on us full time students. We have to have a job that pays enough to afford all
our expenses, works around our school schedule, and is relatively close to our home. Its all
taking away from what we should be worrying about and that is our grades.

As college students we owe it to ourselves to make the most out of learning from our professors.
When we pay as much as we do, we have to make the most out of learning our particular skill.
Recently Charlene Oldham found a fresh statistic on how much college students owe after
college, The average recent 2016 college graduate is projected to have $37,000 in student loan
debt, according to Mark Kantrowitz publisher of Cappex.com,(Huffington Post). This debt is
beginning to completely alter our education. Kantrowitz of time.com explains the percentages of
debt the college graduate has, If we look only at students who borrow to attend college, it
appears that more than a quarter (27.2%) of them are graduating with excessive debt,
(Kantrowitz). Sometimes our personal lives get in the way of that. Most of our personal lives in
college consist of our jobs, homework, and pressure. Sam Frizell of time.com states, Students
across the country are trapped by their debts and often unable to take advantage of the freedom
that a college degree should theoretically afford them, (Frizell).The majority of the time there is
so much pressure from our jobs, time to do homework, and finding a career path that we want to
invest our lives in that we forget about learning a particular trade. It is most important that we
spend our time in college pursuing our dream. Our dreams of a career we always wanted to
reside in, or that pays a lot of money so that we can have a life that we have always wanted.
Regardless of what someone wants, we go to college to better our futures. Our future isnt
necessarily dependent on our 4+ years in college, but those years can change our lives
drastically.
If all we do with our higher education is seek to pay our debts, how are we bettering our futures?
We should be bettering our education as well as our careers, not worrying about how we are
going to pay for a debt that will take years to pay off. That is if we get the job after we get our
degree which is another battle in itself. I appreciate the time it took to address this matter I have
sought out to get heard from the higher level.
Sincerely,

Mark Manley, Freshman NOC/OSU

324 Kaw
Perry, OK 73077
 Annotated Bibs
Frizell, Sam. "Student Loans Are Ruining Your Life. Now They're Ruining the Economy, Too."
Time. Time, n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2017. <http://time.com/10577/student-loans-are-ruining-
your-life-now-theyre-ruining-the-economy-too/>.

Sams article on student loans perfectly fit my letter. He describes how these loans are
controlling, and will still continue to control college students lives after college. Sam covers
politics and breaking news for TIME in Washington, D.C. His sources are scholarly, and this
article had valid information that benefited my letter.

Kantrowitz, Mark. "Why Student Loan & Debt Crisis Is Worse Than People Think | Money."
Time. Time, n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2017. <http://time.com/money/4168510/why-student-
loan-crisis-is-worse-than-people-think/>.

Marks article on the student loan crisis explained to me how bad it actually was for
college students. It gave good statistics on the percentage of college students graduating with
great student loan debt. Mark is an expert of student loans and financial aid. His article benefited
my letter with good scholarly statistics.

Oldham, Charlene. "Student Loan Debt: Is College Tuition Worth the Cost?" The
Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 07 June 2016. Web. 25 Apr. 2017.
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gobankingrates/student-loan-debt-is-
coll_b_10337216.html>.

Charlenes article gave me a deeper understanding of why I chose to go to

college, but gave me great statistics on why people tend to stray away from college.
Student loans are impacting college graduates lives after college. Those jobs we paid so
much money to get have to pay a lot in return to pay off our debt. Charlene is and has
been a teacher, and a freelancer who writes about education, work place issues, consumer
finance, health and wellness and business personalities.