Required Reading Alert: Borrowing to Attend Your Top Choice College
Before your student chooses a college– or starts dreaming of an unaffordable one– here’s some data they need to see. A recent Harris Poll on behalf of CNBC Make It’s “Middle-Aged Millennials” series showed that more than half of older millennials– those aged 33-40– regret taking out student loans. Of 1,000 such adults surveyed, the average amount borrowed was just under $22,000, and less than 1/3 have fully repaid their loans.
The survey also includes considerable data about loans’ impact on these adults’ lives. Less than 1/3 said that their debt did not restrict their life choices “in any way” while plenty said that student loans kept them from doing things:
1/4 said their student loans caused them to delay purchasing a home, reduced their ability to save for retirement or build emergency savings, and left them unable to travel or socialize.
Almost 20% said their student loans limited their career choices or resulted in moving in with family or friends in order not to have to pay rent.
10% or more said their student loans limited where they could live, limited their access to internships in college, or caused them to delay marriage or having children.
Read all about it here.
With that being said, if the federal direct student loan is the difference between going to college and not going to college, it's probably a wise investment in your future. Students who limit their borrowing to the federal direct student loan will owe around $29,000 when they graduate; monthly payments of about $325 will result in paying off the balance in 10 years.
And of course, it’s never too late to go back to the college and appeal your financial aid award. This year, colleges are predicting a drop of up to 4% in students enrolling in the fall, meaning that colleges may be actively courting students. With acceptance deadlines varying by college, it’s also likely that a higher-than-normal proportion of students who accept enrollment in May will ultimately choose to go somewhere else, leaving college administrators scrambling to fill seats. For details on how to appeal, go here.
