Cortney Munna Responds

Cortney Munna, the debt-burdened NYU graduate featured in a recent New York Times profile and in my last blog post responds today to the more than 600 comments posted to the original Times article. She writes very eloquently and accepts responsibility for her plight, although she says she wants to fight to “re-write the rules of the student loan game as it relates to loan underwriting, counseling and the bankruptcy laws.”

She also points to the need for better information:

As far as why I let the debt amass as I did: Frankly, I was uninformed. For this, I blame myself and my family for not looking beyond the school for information, and I blame the school for not offering clearer information about the differences in lending sources.

In retrospect, it’s absolutely clear to me that I should have thought more about the cost of the education versus career prospects. I didn’t think of it as a purchase. It was always just the next step to take: Get into good school. Get decent scholarship. Work hard.

And have it all pay off in the end.