The College Solutions Blog

Valuable insights from Lynn O’Shaughnessy
a nationally recognized college expert.

Student Loans
June 17, 2011

How College Students Feel About Debt

I read something crazy this week about how young Americans feel about all their credit card balances and the student debt they’ve racked up. Apparently, the majority of them feel “empowered” by all that money they owe lenders. The average student loan borrower, who graduates from college, owes $23,000 or $24,000. And the typical graduating senior with one credit card...
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June 8, 2011

7 Tips For Repaying Your Student Loans

Many college seniors, who are graduating this month, probably thought this day would never arrive. I’m not talking about their graduation day. I’m referring to the time when they would have to start repaying their student loans. With the economy still in a funk and unemployment remaining high, this is a scary time to be contemplating all that student debt....
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June 1, 2011

What Is the Best Student Loan?

What is the best student loan? I got an email from a dad who was hoping to get the answer to that question. His son needs to borrow for the last year of college. That was an easy question to answer. The best education loan available is the federal Stafford Loan. There are two types of Stafford loans:  subsidized and...
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April 13, 2011

17 Ways to Reduce Your Dependence on College Loans

How can reduce your dependence on college loans? Mark Kantrowitz, the publisher of FinAid and FastWeb, sent me this article today that includes his suggestions on how families can reduce their dependence on college loans. I couldn’t resist adding some links to college blog posts that I’ve written on the same topics. Here is Mark’s advice: 1. Borrow less for...
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March 22, 2011

Stafford Loans: Borrowing for College

It’s that time of year when parents, as well as new and returning college students, start thinking about college loans. Consequently, today I want to answer a few questions about Stafford Loans, which are the most popular federal student loans. Here are the questions: Question No. 1: Are there different kinds of Stafford Loans?   Yes. There are unsubsidized Stafford...
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August 9, 2010

College Loan Debt Just Passed Credit Card Debt!

Americans now owe more money on their college loans than they do on credit cards. I just read about that scary reality on The Wall Street Journal’s website. According to Mark Kantrowitz, the financial aid guru over at FinAid and Fastweb, Americans owe about $829.7 billion in student loans. In comparison, consumers owe $826.5 billion in revolving credit card debt....
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July 9, 2010

A Cheat Sheet for Repaying Student Loans

If you have questions about repaying a student loan, Mark Kantrowitz, the financial aid wizard over at Fastweb, the scholarship search engine, has written a very handy guide on the topic. His student-loan repayment cheat sheet is hot off the press and full of invaluable information. Here are some of the topics that Repaying Student Loans Quick Reference Guide covers:...
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June 7, 2010

Putting Your College Debt On Hold

I got an email this week from Sharon, a mom who is distraught about her son’s college debt. She was hoping that I had an idea about how he can tackle this debt when he is only working part-time. I did have a suggestion on how the young college grad can reduce his student debt burden.  I thought it would...
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April 26, 2010

4 Things You Need to Know About Federal Student Loans

It’s that time of year when parents and students are thinking about college loans. A few days ago, I wrote a college blog post that answered this question: Federal Student Loans: Where Do I Apply? Today, I want to answer three questions about Stafford Loans, which are the most popular federal student loans. Here’s the first question: Question No. 1:...
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February 17, 2010

The $555,000 College Debt Mistake

Recently I wrote posts that cautioned parents and students not to take on too much college debt. Why am I being a nag? College loan debt can be toxic. My Exhibit A is a family practitioner in Columbus, OH, Michelle Bisutte, who finished medical school with $250,000 in debt in 2003. Today her college loan levels have swelled to $555,000....
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