<p>It is perfectly reasonable for any college to expect a family to take out the maximum allowed amounts of federal stafford (and perkins as available) undergrad loans for each year. The student has 10 years to finish paying off those loans, and the feds pay the interest on most of those loans while the student is a full time undergrad or grad student. I just did the calculations for $20,000 of federally subsidized loans and it came out to less than $250 a month for the student. That may mean they have to drive a used car instead of a new car.</p>
<p>It also is perfectly reasonable for a college to expect a student to earn $3,000 a year from either summer work, part-time work or work study. </p>
<p>The problem comes when a college expects a family to take out large PLUS loans. There has been some recent research about how large amounts of PLUS loans and co-signed private student loans are making it impossible for parents to ever retire. In some cases, grandparents were conned into co-signing for private loans. The amount of college loan debt held by seniors has multiplied in the last decade.</p>