By Jane Han
Staff Reporter
A survey showed that more than 70 percent of graduating college seniors are in debt, owing an average of 11.3 million won.
According to Job Korea, an online job site, the debt of 1,179 students who will graduate next month is growing. A similar survey last year found that fresh job seekers carried an average debt of 7.1 million won.
Job Korea's latest report indicates that four-year college students must pay back 11.7 million won, more than the 9.3 million won that students attending two-year institutions owe.
One such student is Kim Joo-hee, who currently owes 4 million won to banks.
During breaks from attending a prestigious women's college in Seoul as a full-time student, she is busy as a part-time teacher, waitress and church organist.
The 22-year-old junior is currently taking another semester off from school to keep her student debt from spiraling out of control.
Juggling two to three jobs for about half a year usually earns her at least 5 million won, said Kim, who has already taken time off from school twice to cut back on her student loans.
This is the reason Kim is in far better shape than her peers.
"My friends gave me one piece of common advice," she said, "and that was to stay out of debt as much as possible".
A majority of respondents (84 percent) said that college tuition led to their debt load, while the second-largest group of students said high living expenses forced them to borrow money.
"Tuition continues to inch up so it's only natural for students to graduate with a whole lot of money to pay off," said Chang Kyung-soo, a financial adviser at Hyundai Capital, a consumer finance firm that offers student loans.
Once it's time to graduate, heavily indebted students get pushed out into the tight job market, but their money problems box them in even more.
Almost 39 percent of the respondents said they were suffering from "serious levels of stress and depression," while more than 51 percent said they were dealing with stress while struggling to land a job.
Reality bites, but experts advise college seniors to look on the bright side.
"How much debt is really too much?" asked an official of the Korea Student Aid Foundation, who stressed that student loans should be considered "good debt".
He said money spent toward education was a smart investment and young people should consider repaying the debt as a goal.
The Korea Times
