Student Debt: Take as little as possible (Andrew Kramer)

Andrew Kramer  Executive Director of Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship of North Texas

Andrew Kramer is the Executive Director of the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship of North Texas. He has a bachelor’s degree in humanities from the University of Texas, Austin and a MBA from Texas Christian University. He lives in Dallas, shares my life with a wonderful partner, and have 3 dogs. SF: What is (or was) your biggest challenge in college? AK: Managing stress. I took on as much as I could, but that was sometimes very hard to balance, and still have some fun. That, and the first year it was incredibly difficult to figure out everything—in my first semester I arrived at a final exam late because I couldn’t find the classroom the test was being held in. I wasn’t all that good at learning foreign languages so it turned out not to matter very much. SF: Were you (or are you) impacted by student loans & debt? AK: Yes. I paid my way through both my undergraduate and MBA programs. Scholarships, Pell Grants and work study stipends didn’t cover it all. SF: What would you do if you didn't have any student debt? AK: Save. Student debt eats up a significant part of my income. But, my education was the most successful investment I’ve made so far—the return is much higher than the interest I pay on the loans. SF: Who is your hero and why? AK: I don’t think I have one single hero. I have had a lot of mentors in my life that have helped guide me in every facet of my life. I am always seeking out mentors but a lot of the time my mentors have been happy accidents. I read a lot and find a great deal of inspiration and ideas from the characters and people I read about. SF: If you could change one thing about our education system, what would it be and how would you go about it? AK: I’d get rid of the SAT and replace it with a Grit Index. Hard work and resilience are better indicators of future success than a test that tells you how good you are at taking that test. I knew people who got near perfect scores on the SAT but never finished college because they didn’t know how or didn’t want to do hard work and deal with setbacks. And I knew a lot of people who didn’t get great SAT scores but did great in college because they were willing to do the work and looked at setbacks as challenges to overcome. SF: What would you suggest to students who are facing student debt? AK: Think about it as an investment for your future. But, take as little of it as possible—it can be very hard the first couple of years to start paying it back. Go to the best school you can afford; there are some really great schools that don’t cost as much as the “name brands,” including community colleges. Get as much out of school as you can while you’re there—you’re going to be paying for it for a long time.