Student loan debt hits record levels

Parents Forum
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<p>[Student</a> loan debt hits record levels ? USATODAY.com](<a href=“http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/college/story/2011-10-19/student-loan-debt/50818676/1]Student”>http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/college/story/2011-10-19/student-loan-debt/50818676/1)</p>

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<p>The average amount borrowed – $4,963 – seems pretty modest to me. No, I’m not on board for bailing these kids out, or their parents. I feel as if the histrionic rhetoric on this is quite calculated and leading to demands for loan forgiveness, tax payers bailouts, etc.</p>

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<p>Wow - a TRILLION total? Does that figure include interest?</p>

<p>Will the economy support payback of a trillion overall?</p>

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I think this is average annual amount borrowed from federally funded programs – not the total amount borrowed per year.</p>

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<p>For a kid who manages to graduate on time and study something even moderately marketable a < $20K debt is really not outrageous. I think the real problem is that too many kids are not actually graduating and too many are majoring in their passion vs what might lead to a job and the ability to pay off the debt.</p>

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<p>Another meaningless statistic without additional information. Is this the average per student including all the students with no borrowing? Rather than an “average” I am more interested in knowing the distribution. How many borrowed > $20k? How many > $100k?</p>