NBR. potential salary vs student loan debt?

ashnoelle

I did the entrance counseling for one of my loans yesterday and at the end it has this handy calculator. You can enter your loan totals and see what salary you should make or you can enter your salary and it will give you the most you should take out in loans.

It was eye opening and frustrating. For the total amount of debt I'll have, it said I'll need to make at least in the upper 80,000 range. That's the max I stand to make after I have a lot of experience under my belt. I think student loans are supposed to only be 8% of your income. And it automatically assumed 10 years for repayment. I stretched it to 15.

I'm getting a MS in Community Development and Applied Economics. And I'm considering a certificate in Ecological Economics.

What to do?