Student Loan Toolkit
The Student Loan Toolkit explains the basics of the student loan system, how to assess your own student loan situation, and your options for managing your student loan debt.
Search Results
-
-
New Federal Student Loan Servicing Contracts, New Promises: Will it Make a Difference for Borrowers?
We acknowledge that USDS represents an improved servicing environment for borrowers and offer recommendations to ensure a successful transition to the USDS servicing environment.
-
Examining the States’ Role in Protecting Online College Students from Predatory Practices
This report provides background on the states’ role as student consumer protector and a brief history of the federal government’s fraught efforts to regulate state authorization for distance education. We call on policymakers to keep in mind the states’ role as student consumer protector in state authorization and reciprocity rulemaking, particularly with respect to distance…
-
Making the Numbers Count: Why Proprietary School Data Doesn’t Add Up and What Can Be Done About It
Equal access to quality education is fundamental to American society. This general principle has very practical implications. Studies consistently show that education is one of the most important indicators of economic status in our society. Education after high school is more than just a fulfilling experience; it is often the difference between basic financial independence…
-
No Way Out: Student Loans, Financial Distress, and the Need for Policy Reform
As the cost of financing our nation’s higher education system falls increasingly on students and families, student loan debt is rising at alarming rates. Most borrowers have to make some sacrifices to repay student loans. The problem, as discussed and documented in this paper, is the extent of these sacrifices. Many student loan borrowers face…
Read More about No Way Out: Student Loans, Financial Distress, and the Need for Policy Reform
-
Finding A Way Out: Improving the Assistance Network for Financially Distressed Student Loan Borrowers
There is a severe shortage of assistance resources for the growing population of financially distressed student loan borrowers. This report investigates the student loan borrower assistance network. We review the following critical categories of relief: information and outreach, counseling, and direct assistance and legal representation. We discuss the strengths and weaknesses of existing resource providers…
-
Paying the Price: The High Cost of Private Student Loans and the Dangers for Student Borrowers
Private student loans are made by lenders to students and families outside of the federal student loan program. They are not subsidized or insured by the federal government and may be provided by banks, non-profits, or other financial institutions. The borrowing limits in the federal loan programs, the skyrocketing cost of higher education and aggressive…
-
Income-Based Repayment: Making it Work for Student Loan Borrowers
As of July 1, 2009, a new income-based student loan repayment program (IBR) will allow most federal student loan borrowers with economic hardships to repay their loans based on a formula that takes income and total indebtedness into account. The government will cancel any remaining balances after twenty-five years of repayment. The program should bring…
Read More about Income-Based Repayment: Making it Work for Student Loan Borrowers
-
Too Small to Help: The Plight of Financially Distressed Private Student Loan Borrowers
The private student loan industry generated huge profits for lenders and investors for many years. Over time, however, the defects in these expensive, unsustainable products became clear and the loans began to fail. The industry hit a wall, exposing the risks of making unsecured, expensive loans to borrowers with little or no ability to repay.…
-
Piling It On: The Growth of Proprietary School Loans And the Consequences for Students
Before the credit crash in 2008, many proprietary schools partnered with third party lenders to provide private student loans to their students. Private student loans are made by lenders to students and families outside of the federal student loan program. They are almost always more expensive than federal student loans. High rate private student loans…
-
The Student Loan Default Trap: Why Borrowers Default and What Can Be Done
Despite the amount of attention garnered by student loan defaults since the 1990s, few studies provide answers about why borrowers default and how best to help them. The lack of research helps perpetuate unproven theories about default, including the idea that the recession is solely to blame for increased default rates. The stakes are high…
Read More about The Student Loan Default Trap: Why Borrowers Default and What Can Be Done
-
Borrowers on Hold: Student Loan Collection Agency Complaint Systems Need Massive Improvement
The U.S. Department of Education (the Department) relies on an increasing number of private collection agency contractors to recover defaulted student loans. Although the use of student loan collection agencies is not new, the impact of this policy on borrowers is greater than ever. By contracting out its defaulted loan portfolio and failing to provide…
