Students aren’t the only ones crushed by school debt
Where do you turn when you’ve maxed out on federal student loans? Ask Mom http://paydayloanadvance.net/payday-loans-ne/ and Dad to take out some parent loans, too.
Students aren’t the only ones crushed by school debt
The average cumulative federal student loan debt that parents borrow even exceeds what’s being taken on by students who graduate with debt, according to new research.
On average, parents owed $32,596 for their cumulative loans taken out under the Federal Parent PLUS program at college graduation in 2015-16.
On average, college grads with bachelor’s degrees owed $29,669 in student loans in 2015-16, according to Mark Kantrowitz, publisher and vice president of research for Savingforcollege.
To be sure, a much smaller percentage of parents borrow than students. About 69 percent of students took out student loans in 2015-16, compared with about 14.4 percent of parents, Kantrowitz said.
The high cost of college – and the inability of some families to save much money – has caused nearly half of college grads with student loans to take out the maximum amount of loans allowed under the federal student loan program.
One Dearborn mother I talked with took out about $6,000 in loans about five years ago when her daughter began attending Central Michigan University.
The idea was to borrow some for the first year to pay part of the tuition, try to pay that off quickly and then build up savings to cover the cost of college in future years.
Her daughter worked during the summers, took a few odd jobs while she was at school in Mt. Pleasant, and she took out about $5,000 in student loans herself.
Nearly 69 percent of bachelor’s degree recipients graduated with student loan debt in 2015-16, Kantrowitz said. (más…)