I am about to enroll in a VERY expensive school. That, coupled with the fact that I have a good bit of student loan debt from previous attempts at a college education, means I will approach six figure debts when I graduate.

However, in my new major, I understand that careers in my field, while typically lucrative, are not always terrific pay. In fact, for the first year, some salaries have been reported to be as low as $24,000.

Now, I'll get raises out the yin-yang, don't get me wrong. In fact, the average salary for a person in my profession for his first three years is actually about $46,000! I kid you not! THAT is the kind of salary raises I can expect!

The problem is that the student loan bills will probably be about $900 per month. If I get really unlucky and get that $24k job, that's $2k per month, or $1,640 after taxes are withheld, leaving me with only $740 per month to actually live off of. How will I make ends meet on the first year? I would probably meet the requirements to for the "undue hardship" provision for student loan bankruptcy (do a google search, since I can't provide links yet). I might get really good raises, but what good is that if I don't even make it that far without going bankrupt? A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Would it be a necessary evil to (and believe me, I'm cringing when I say this) deadbeat my student loan creditors for the first couple of years until my finances can increase? After all, that $740 that I have to live off of is less than the poverty level! I don't want to do this, but it seems that I have no choice!

It's not like I can just "get a second job." Not in this economy! In fact, that's why I'm in college!

Thoughts?

I would call it the "unecessary evil". Why not try an inexpensive school? I kind of went through the same thing, but paid for it in the end. I went to a private school to chase my dream and all I got out of it was broke. I was only making around 25k. So, after working for 4 years, I decided to go back to school and get my Computer science degree for very cheap and am now making over 56k a year. My school loans of 30k are paid off and I am debt free. If you continue on the path you are taking you will be drowning in debt. Be ethical to the creditors that you owe.