Student Loans, Colleges | featured news

It's the latest snapshot of the growing burden of student debt and it's another discouraging one: Two-thirds of the national college class of 2011 finished school with loan debt, and those who borrowed walked off the graduation stage owing on average $26,600 - up about 5 percent from the class before....

Growing college enrollment has stretched student debt to a record number of U.S. households, burdening young, poor.

Facing weekend deadlines for action, congressional leaders have agreed to deals overhauling the nation's transportation programs without a Republican provision forcing approval of the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline, and avoiding a doubling of interest rates for new student loans, congressional officials said Wednesday....

Congressional bargainers seem near an agreement that would avert a July 1 doubling of interest rates on federal loans to 7.4 million college students and end an election-year battle between President Barack Obama and Congress, Senate aides from both parties said Friday....

The Obama administration and 10 private colleges and state university systems are taking steps this week aimed at improving transparency about the cost of college, including loans and options for repaying them.

As the nation amasses more than $1 trillion in student loans, education experts say a vexing new problem has emerged: A growing number of young people have a mountain of debt but no degree to show for it.

In the political campaigns still taking shape, President Barack Obama, Republican challenger Mitt Romney and lawmakers of both parties say they want to protect college students from a sharp increase in interest rates on federally subsidized loans....

President Obama kicked off a week of appeals to young voters on Saturday by urging Congress to maintain the interest rate on student loans, keeping the costs of college stable.

The federal student loan program seemed like a great idea back in 1965: Borrow to go to college now; pay it back later when you have a job.

We thought we’d dodged a bullet. When the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced that student loan debt had passed the $1 trillion mark my first thought was one of relief since our last child is graduating from college next month. Even though his tuition has almost doubled during his tenure as a student at the University of California, we were fortunate that he will be able to graduate without student loan debt. That may change in the future if he decides to complete a graduate degree, but my husband and I wiped our brows with a collective sigh of relief.