Check out the Education Bubble, a three-part WBUR series on the implications of student loan borrowing. It’s not a pretty picture. Fortunately UMass Boston’s students are not sharing the experiences profiled who include graduates with $80 and $90 thousand dollars of debt to pay off, with monthly payments as high as $3,000.

In contrast, the average debt load upon graduation for UMass Boston students is about $19,000 with 67 percent of our students borrowing some amount to complete their education.

What’s interesting about this story, was its coverage of the issues related to whether or not schools, such as Simmons and Holy Cross, dissuade students from over borrowing given what prospective careers they might enter after graduation.  If a student wants to enter public service in some capacity and if they are carrying a high debt load, that choice doesn’t add up.  With debt loads of the levels discussed in this story, the only choice to make loan payments would be jobs in the private sector.

Enter the public university. One can become educated and enter public service, say become a teacher, and still have the flexibility to pay back loans.

People can make charitable gifts anywhere:
here’s why your investment to public higher education “reaches  higher.”

Nan Cormier is director of advancement communications