Tag: college loans


What happens if you don’t pay your student loans?

Posted on October 8th, 2014

With the national student debt topping $1 trillion, more students than ever are defaulting on their student loans.

The average student loan default rate is currently at 9.1%–that’s almost 1 in 10 borrowers.

If you have high student debt, you may be thinking, what’s the worst that can happen if you don’t pay it back?

A lot of terrible things, actually. From a severely low credit score to having your wages garnished, the consequences of defaulting on your student loans are dire.

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Parents paying kids’ student loans while putting off retirement savings

Posted on August 22nd, 2014

With the average student debt load rising for college graduates, it’s not surprising that many parents feel obligated to help pay their kids’ student loans to prevent them from falling behind.

According to a survey of 5,000 Americans released Thursday by Citizens Financial Group, as reported by MarketWatch, 94% of parents of college students ages 18 to 24 say they think their personal burden for their kids’ college student loan debt is increasing.

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Want to pay your student loans? Don’t move to one of these cities

Posted on August 12th, 2014

When many college students graduate, they’re tempted by the thought of moving to a big, exciting city.

Indeed, cities like New York and San Francisco provide many opportunities for work and play, so it’s unsurprising that they tend to attract hungry, eager young adults. But they’re also some of the most expensive cities in which to rent an apartment.

Many financial experts say you shouldn’t spend more than 30 percent of your income on housing, but for most graduates living in big cities, rent is their biggest expense. That’s why they often struggle to make other payments, like student loans.

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6 out of 10 college graduates unemployed or underemployed

Posted on July 8th, 2014

"Students and graduates are corralled by crippling debt into making financial decisions out of necessity rather than out of desire. They aren't purchasing homes, investing in their future or focusing on community involvement. The debt insists that they work for money, rather than for societal improvement." -- Charles Stevens

Student debt remains an enormous societal and economic problem, with the average college graduate leaving school with $29,400 in loans, according to College Access and Success. It would be one thing if these graduates were entering an economy with many high-paying jobs available, but that simply isn’t the case, Charles Stevens writes in a fantastic […]

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Did need-blind admission create the college debt crisis?

Posted on July 7th, 2014

"In sum, 'need-blind' admissions, summoning a mental image of the coal miner or bus driver’s daughter striding her way across the college green, quite often leaves that daughter 60 or 70 thousand dollars in debt." -- John McWhorter

Many of the nation’s top universities, such as Harvard, Stanford and Duke, are lauded for having need-blind admissions policies, meaning they don’t take into account a student’s ability to pay for college when making admissions decisions. These schools say the policy a way to make sure the best students are accepted because of their merit, […]

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Mo’ debt, mo’ problems

Posted on June 26th, 2014

"The amount of student loans that graduates take out to pay for their undergraduate degree is related to their well-being in every element. The higher the loan amount, the worse the well-being." -- Gallup-Purdue University study

It’s an age-old question that’s been debated by philosophers from Socrates to The Notorious B.I.G.: Does mo’ money equal mo’ problems? It just might, if that money is being taken out to pay for college. Graduates with student debt are less happy Many students and families think that attending a prestigious, well-known college is the […]

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Student loan debt a huge burden for millennials

Posted on April 23rd, 2014

What’s keeping millennials up at night? It’s not just Netflix–it’s student debt.

NPR’s Morning Edition recently asked young adults, members of the millennial generation, what their biggest concerns were.

The results were telling: almost two-thirds responded that college debt was their biggest worry.

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Employers will hire more college grads this year

Posted on April 18th, 2014

Good news (finally!) for young college graduates.

According to a survey released on April 16, employers said they plan to increase the number of college graduates they hire this year by nearly 9 percent.

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Educate students on student loan repayment before, not after college

Posted on April 7th, 2014

"We have a serious disconnect when it comes to conversations about incurring and repaying debt." -- Karen Gross

Hechinger Report recently published a great opinion piece from Karen Gross on the ‘flawed conversation’ regarding the cost of higher education. She says that too much public focus is placed on the hard costs of college, and not enough on the repercussions of taking out student debt and alternative repayment options for students. We couldn’t agree more with her claims. […]

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First-generation students benefit from starting at a community college

Posted on March 24th, 2014

"This is suggestive evidence that some four-year college drop-outs may have greater postsecondary success at two-year colleges. " -- Erin Dunlop Velez

One of the knocks against community colleges has been that students who complete two-year degrees are less likely to continue on and complete their bachelor’s degree than their peers at four-year colleges. This was confirmed back in 2009, when Bridget Terry Long and Michal Kurlaender found that students who initially began at community colleges were 14.5% less likely […]

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