Student Loan Anyone?

I was lucky enough to never have student loans at all so I guess I can't really understand this fully but I would say that this article is damn scary:

Average tuition and fees at a private college or university is $18,000 and rising at twice the inflation rate. Meanwhile, what students call "real" financial aid--grants and scholarships, not loans--keeps falling. The result is two-fold. The Rand Corporation estimates that 6 million Americans will be "priced out of the system" over the next two decades. And for those who bite the bullet, more students than ever (46 percent in 1990, 70 percent in 2000) end up taking out college loans.

The U.S. college industry churns out about a million newly-minted graduates every year. On average, they owe $27,600 to creditors they can't shake even by declaring bankruptcy. Depending on the type of loan, a typical 21-year-old faces a minimum monthly payment of from $350 to $420 for the next ten years. Anisa Brophy, the would-be cartoonist, is in for at least $880 a month. If debtees have trouble paying, they can apply for a temporary deferment, but the interest keeps piling on. [_Go_]

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Review: The Boston Ryze Event

While I won't say that I'm a monk by any means, I have a reputation among those who know me for not being hugely social.  Its not that I don't like people or anything else; things just always seem to work out that way.  Witness the recent Meetup event I tried to attend which was a total fiasco.  Even when I try, it all too often seems to fail.

So it is extremely surprising, to myself if no one else, that I've actually made it to not one but two of the Boston Ryze networking events.  And it is definitely a testimony to the good work done by Mark James (organizer) and Sooz (who deprecates her role but is a huge asset).

For those who haven't experienced it, Ryze is an online networking thing that is starting to work its way into the real world as well.  Although there are "officially sanctioned" Ryze events, they don't yet exist in Boston so Mark has taken it upon himself to pull together these good albeit unofficial events.  The Boston events have now met three times at Marche Movenpick in the Prudential center.  Since I missed the first one, I can't say anything about it although I have heard good things.  What I can comment on are events #2 and #3.  Here are some of the Pros and Cons:

Pros

• Good group of people
• Small enough to be able to talk to people in depth
• I made good contacts both events
• Convenient location
• Inexpensive location where food is optional not required
• Diverse group of people
• Different group of people from Event 2 to Event 3 (only 4 or 5 cross overs)
• Well organized
• In the 2nd event Sooz helped break up the forming groups forcing you to talk to other people which was very, very positive.

Cons

• Small group of people (approx 12 to 15 each time).  This is really the only con.
• Diverse group of people (makes it interesting but can be challenging if you wanted to bring a speaker in for example)

Bottom Line?  Highly recommended.  Sure the events could be larger but so what?  That comes in time.  Mark and Sooz are doing a great job and should be commended.  I'm sure there will be another one in Boston next month and you should stop by if you're local.  Oh and thanks to Matt Mower for pushing me to join Ryze in the first place.

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