Whether you are a college student or the parent of a child planning to attend college, student debt will become an issue that must be dealt with.
Studies have shown that nearly 75 percent of all college students rely on some form of financial aid while attending college. This includes both private and public schools. Some of the aid that students rely on comes from grants and scholarships which do not have to be repaid, but other forms of aid come as student loans, which, of course, do have to be repaid.
There are, of course, those other forms of loans such as those that parents take out to help pay for the cost of college. These often fall into the category of home equity loans when the parents have access to cash in the home. At other times, they are simple personal loans taken out at banks and credit unions.
Regardless of the type of loan or combination of loans that are needed to finance the education, the student is often left with a substantial debt burden that has to be addressed once he or she leaves school. With the cost of college increasing each year, the debt burden that the student assumes can play a major role in the person’s immediate...