<p>It may have been a matter of a President taking one person’s (or six students’, in this case) anecdote and assuming that meant it was a widespread problem. I have no doubt that there are some students who do fret about their loans, and who do limit their own career choices because of it. </p>
<p>Less than $20,000 in loans may sound like a small amount to us, but if the student involved was from a poor family with few resources, that student has no safety net. The student has no one to help buy a car, purchase a professional wardrobe (both of which are needed for that first job, even a teaching job), provide a security deposit on the apartment, any of that. And that student may have a strong desire to help out by sending money home to help with younger siblings. For all of those reasons, poorer students may feel a real budget pinch, one that makes loan payments on a modest salary more daunting. That modest salary could be teaching, or something even lower-paying, possibly with dicier benefits. </p>
<p>How widespread this thinking was among students at Davidson, I don’t know. I have noticed a tendency in higher education (and other realms, as well) to hear one good story (or, in this case, six) and assume it represents some larger subset of students.</p>
<p>At any rate, I think this is a big help for some families, and I applaud it. I’m not sure about the rationale for upper middle class families.</p>