preview

College Essay On Student Debt

Decent Essays

The definition of debt is something that is owed, usually money, to someone (another person or the government). A more narrow aspect of debt is student debt, which is the debt that a student accumulates from taking loans out to pay for college. The origin of loans came from the
Higher Education Act of 1965 which “… provided loan guaranties to banks in order to promote the banks’ lending to students who wished to pursue postsecondary education” (Collinge pg 3).
During that time it wasn’t as much of an issue as it is today because the cost of attendance at most universities was exceptionally lower than now. It started to become an issue around the
1990s when the loan companies and federal government interests (money) became more important than the students (education). Now around two-thirds of the students graduating from college are graduating with debt, and “… the average borrower will graduate $26,600 in the red”
(Denhart). With an interest of 3.8% that equals approximately $38,600, if they are monthly payments it comes out to about $320, and in order to pay this off it would take almost ten years
(Denhart). Of course people can pay more per month or all of it at once, which is extremely rare, but most people do not have that luxury and defer (postpone) their payments when they can. One example of this is Thomas Villalobos, 66, a former government worker of California. Back in
1976 he took out a loan of $12,000 to attend law school, but because of shortage in

Get Access