That's most admirable of you and I wish you all the best in the future.

However, saying that trusting the institution's judgment and advise is like buying magic beans is a bit extreme. You're generally raised to trust and respect the opinions of those who's advice you are paying for and who are far more experienced than yourself. So when a well paid, professional "expert" from an accredited school recommends you buy a course of study, you're likely to agree with them and buy their product.

Like it or not,18 - 20 year olds are still young and generally gullible. They do not have the life experience, in most cases, to be jaded enough to distrust someone who should be acting in their best interest. While this isn't quite like betraying a public trust, I think it's pretty darn close.

In my opinion this is called a con and should be treated like any other con job or fraud case. Do we blame the little old lady who is tricked into loosing her life savings because she thought she was paying her electric bill over the phone? I don't think so, but even if we do, do we pat the con artist on the back and tell him "keep up the good work"? No, if we catch him, we prosecute him and attempt to make him pay back any ill-gotten gains.

Colleges keep "selling" their wares to new and unsuspecting young adults every year and I think it's about time they're made to face the realities we'd all face if we engaged in an organized scheme that cheated unsuspecting people for years on end.

I agree. Caveat emptor. I suspect you have found or will find work that you love and pays well, and it's impossible to say whether that education helped in some way. So even if they did overstate the value of what they provided, you will make lemonade out of lemons.

My undergrad education would have been more valuable if I had worked as a tech for a year or two first. That's the main reason I felt like I got more out of my masters: I had actually done some of this stuff and could evaluate how it fit into the real world. Also I was paying for it myself by working. My parents paid for undergrad.

Speaking as someone with a useless degree paid for in part with student loans, I hold myself responsible for the debt.

I have never missed a student loan payment. I have never blamed the government or bank for making it possible for me to go to school. Sure, it ended up being a lousy investment but that's not their fault.

For a time, I did blame the college for selling me a bad "product". I clearly remember my college advisor telling me when I graduated I would make easily $45,000 a year at my first job. That did not happen.

Today, I do not blame the school. I should have done more research into the school, the degree I was getting, and career options after graduation. I know a lot of people that feel differently, but think of it this way....

If you met a man selling magic beans, beans that would change your life (make you rich, smart, etc.), and you paid him $100,000 for those beans only to find out they were useless, who would you blame? Immediately, you might be upset at the man. Why is he defrauding people? But honestly, isn't the fault really with you? Why did you think there was a magic pill (bean) that would change your life so drastically? Did you do any research? Read any magic bean reviews?

I do believe that colleges mislead students, a lot of their advisors are as bad as used car salesmen, but at the end of the day you're responsible for your life the decisions you make. A college doesn't come up and hold you at gunpoint to force you to sign a student loan agreement.

Well, in a free market you can't totally insulate people from the consequences of their own bad decisions. Young people have to learn how to operate in the real world, and that lesson can sometimes be expensive. And colleges don't actually guarantee you a job after you graduate. The market discipline of sound lending standards can prevent many students from taking out unwise loans, by making lenders reluctant to finance such loans.

I agree again, but that still leaves the colleges and universities with all the money they "cheated" out of gullible people who trusted their guidance.
If someone sells you a lemon car and you take a loan out on it, the dealership still has the money even if you declare bankruptcy against the lending institution.

One obvious fix would be to make student loan debt dischargable in bankruptcy. It would make lenders think twice before shelling out $100,000 for a degree in Postmodern Literature.

I agree .... But the colleges and Universities are, and have been, actively encouraging young people, who simply don't know any better, to go into massive debt while pocketing the cash with no regard for the student's futures.

To me that's fraud and they should be held accountable as any other organization doing the same thing. Don't we go after welfare fraud? How about financial fraud against seniors? Or fraud of any type?

Besides, it'd be a great way to force this liberal world of academia to accept the hard realities of the responsibilities faced by the rest of us living in the real world.

Perhaps it's time for the government to get out of the student loan business.