Resources & Links
- 5 Facts About Student Loans: Pew Research CenterAmericans owed about $1.5 trillion in student loans at the end of March 2019, more than two times what they owed a decade earlier. The increase has come as historically high shares of young adults in the United States go to college and the cost of higher education increases.
- Federal Student Loans for College or Career School: Federal Student AidYou must repay your loan, so be sure you understand your options and responsibilities.
- Student Loans: Consumer Financial Protection BureauWhether you are preparing for college, attending school, or already repaying your student loans, we have tools and resources to help you make the best decisions for you.
Research & Reference
- The Student Debt Crises in the U.S.A Statista DossierPlus on the cost of higher education in the United States.
- Student Loans: Credit ReferenceA Credo Reference landing page on student loans. This page includes links to reference works and journal articles.
- Total amount provided in student loans in the United States from 2000/01 to 2020/21In the academic year 2000/01, a total of 59.3 billion 2020 U.S. dollars was offered to students across the United States in the form of loans. By 2020/21, this amount had increased to 95.9 billion 2020 U.S. dollars. This amount peaked in 2010/11, when 135.1 billion 2020 U.S. dollars were provided in student loans.
Americans Owe $1.7 Trillion in Student Loans
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U.S. Student Debt Is a National Problem
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Perspectives
Indebted: How Families Make College Work at Any Cost
How the financial pressures of paying for college affect the lives and well-being of middle-class families The struggle to pay for college is one of the defining features of middle-class life in America today. At kitchen tables all across the country, parents agonize over whether to burden their children with loans or to sacrifice their own financial security by taking out a second mortgage or draining their retirement savings. Indebted takes readers into the homes of middle-class families throughout the nation to reveal the hidden consequences of student debt and the ways that financing college has transformed family life. Caitlin Zaloom gained the confidence of numerous parents and their college-age children, who talked candidly with her about stressful and intensely personal financial matters that are usually kept private. In this remarkable book, Zaloom describes the profound moral conflicts for parents as they try to honor what they see as their highest parental duty--providing their children with opportunity--and shows how parents and students alike are forced to take on enormous debts and gamble on an investment that might not pay off. What emerges is a troubling portrait of an American middle class fettered by the "student finance complex"--the bewildering labyrinth of government-sponsored institutions, profit-seeking firms, and university offices that collect information on household earnings and assets, assess family needs, and decide who is eligible for aid and who is not. Superbly written and unflinchingly honest, Indebted breaks through the culture of silence surrounding the student debt crisis, revealing the unspoken costs of sending our kids to college.
How to Wipe Out Your Student Loans and Be Debt Free Fast
According to a recent study by the National Center for Education Statistics, an estimated 65 percent of recent college graduates are burdened by student loans. Although the average debt is $19,000, loans can exceed $50,000 and may be much higher for those who attend graduate school, law school, or medical school. Many students, faced with the task of repaying such a large amount of money, become overwhelmed merely thinking about it. But, using this new book, you can learn how to eliminate your student loans and be debt free. In this exhaustively researched book, you will learn everything you need to know about student loans, including grace periods, deferment, forbearance, interest rates, co-signors, exit counselling, prepayment, discharges, cancellation, default, and much more. You will create a repayment schedule; understand the various repayment options, such as graduated repayment, level repayment, income-sensitive repayment, extended repayment, serialisation, and income-contingent repayment; and be able to choose the appropriate plan for your unique situation. Additionally, you will learn how to save money through consolidation, how to secure the best interest rate, how consolidating can improve your credit score, how to use lender incentive programs to save money, and how to lower interest rates. Whether you are a current student looking to get a jumpstart on repayment or you are a recent graduate trying to wade through the letters you are receiving from your lenders and consolidation companies, this will be an indispensable companion.
The Student Loan Scam
An in-depth exploration and exposé of the predatory nature of the student loan industry Alan Collinge never imagined he would become a student loan justice activist. He planned to land a solid job after college, repay his student loan debt, and then simply forget the loans ever existed. Like millions of Americans, however, in spite of working hard, Collinge fell behind on payments and entered a labyrinthine student loan nightmare. High school graduates can no longer put themselves through college for a few thousand dollars in loan debt. Today, the average undergraduate borrower leaves school with more than $20,000 in student loans, and for graduate students the average is a whopping $42,000. For the past twenty years, college tuition has increased at more than double the rate of inflation, with the cost largely shifting to student debt. The Student Loan Scamis an exposé of the predatory nature of the $85-billion student loan industry. In this in-depth exploration, Collinge argues that student loans have become the most profitable, uncompetitive, and oppressive type of debt in American history. This has occurred in large part due to federal legislation passed since the mid-1990s that removed standard consumer protections from student loans-and allowed for massive penalties and draconian wealth-extraction mechanisms to collect this inflated debt. Collinge covers the history of student loans, the rise of Sallie Mae, and how universities have profited at the expense of students. The book includes candid and compelling stories from people across the country about how both nonprofit and for-profit student loan companies, aided by poor legislation, have shattered their lives-and livelihoods. With nearly 5 million defaulted loans, this crisis is growing to epic proportions. The Student Loan Scamtakes an unflinching look at this unprecedented and pressing problem, while exposing the powerful organizations and individuals who caused it to happen. Ultimately, Collinge argues for the return of standard consumer protections for student loans, among other pragmatic solutions, in this clarion call for social action.
Where Do American Students Have The Highest Debt?
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Default - The Student Loan Documentary
Just a few years after the subprime mortgage crisis, there are ominous signs that the student loan market is on the verge of collapsing, yet another casualty of predatory lending practices. DEFAULT brings this perilous situation into sharp relief, chronicling the stories of borrowers who find themselves in the paralyzing predicament of having to repay far more than what they borrowed -- with no bankruptcy protection, and no recourse under the law. The result is at once an accessible analysis of a mounting economic crisis, and a cautionary tale for students.
Source: Kanopy