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Student Loans Are Ruining Your Life. Now They’re Ruining the Economy Too
Student Loans Are Ruining Your Life. Now They’re Ruining the Economy Too
American students are well over $1 trillion in debt, and it's starting to hurt everyone, economists say
By Sam Frizell @Sam_FrizellFeb. 26, 2014
http://business.time.com/2014/02/26...theyre-ruining-the-economy-too/#ixzz2uyGOehSD
Chris Rong did everything right. A 23-year-old dentistry student in New York City, Rong excelled at one of the country’s top high schools, breezed through college and is now studying dentistry at one of the best dental schools in the nation.
But it may be a long time before he sees any rewards. He’s moved back home with his parents in Bayside, Queens — an hour-and-a-half commute each way to class at New York University’s College of Dentistry — and by the time he graduates in 2016, he’ll face $400,000 in student loans. “If the money weren’t a problem I would live on my own,” says Rong. “My debt is hanging over my mind. I’m taking that all on myself.”
Rong isn’t alone. Across the U.S., students are taking on increasingly large amounts of debt to pay for heftier education tuitions. Figures released last week by the Federal Reserve of New York show that aggregate student loans nationwide have continued to rise. At the end of 2003, American students and graduates owed just $253 billion in aggregate debt; by the end of 2013, American students’ debt had ballooned to a total of $1.08 trillion, an increase of over 300%. In the past year alone, aggregate student debt grew 10%. By comparison, overall debt grew just 43% in the past decade and 1.6% over the past year.
According to a December study by the Institute for College Access & Success, 7 out of 10 students in the class of 2012 graduated with student loans, and the average amount of debt among students who owed was $29,400. There’s no clear end in sight. “The total amount of student debt is growing basically at a constant rate,” Wilbert van der Klaauw, an economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York tells TIME. “The inflow is much higher than the outflow, which is likely to continue in the future as reliance on student loans for college is expected to remain high.”
Debt is painful for many students, and an increasing number of graduates are unable to pay back their loans on time. Delinquencies on student loans have risen dramatically over the past decade: 11.5% of graduates were at least 90 days late on paying back their loans at the end of 2013, compared with 6.2% delinquencies on student loans in 2003. Moreover, the Fed’s figures on delinquencies hide more stark data: nearly half of all students with debt aren’t currently in repayment thanks to deferments and forbearances and the fact that students are not expected to pay while they’re in school, according to van der Klaauw. What that means is that for the graduates who are actually expected to pay their loans now, the delinquency rate is roughly double the 11.5% figure.
Student Loans Are Ruining Your Life. Now They’re Ruining the Economy Too
American students are well over $1 trillion in debt, and it's starting to hurt everyone, economists say
By Sam Frizell @Sam_FrizellFeb. 26, 2014
http://business.time.com/2014/02/26...theyre-ruining-the-economy-too/#ixzz2uyGOehSD
Chris Rong did everything right. A 23-year-old dentistry student in New York City, Rong excelled at one of the country’s top high schools, breezed through college and is now studying dentistry at one of the best dental schools in the nation.
But it may be a long time before he sees any rewards. He’s moved back home with his parents in Bayside, Queens — an hour-and-a-half commute each way to class at New York University’s College of Dentistry — and by the time he graduates in 2016, he’ll face $400,000 in student loans. “If the money weren’t a problem I would live on my own,” says Rong. “My debt is hanging over my mind. I’m taking that all on myself.”
Rong isn’t alone. Across the U.S., students are taking on increasingly large amounts of debt to pay for heftier education tuitions. Figures released last week by the Federal Reserve of New York show that aggregate student loans nationwide have continued to rise. At the end of 2003, American students and graduates owed just $253 billion in aggregate debt; by the end of 2013, American students’ debt had ballooned to a total of $1.08 trillion, an increase of over 300%. In the past year alone, aggregate student debt grew 10%. By comparison, overall debt grew just 43% in the past decade and 1.6% over the past year.
According to a December study by the Institute for College Access & Success, 7 out of 10 students in the class of 2012 graduated with student loans, and the average amount of debt among students who owed was $29,400. There’s no clear end in sight. “The total amount of student debt is growing basically at a constant rate,” Wilbert van der Klaauw, an economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York tells TIME. “The inflow is much higher than the outflow, which is likely to continue in the future as reliance on student loans for college is expected to remain high.”
Debt is painful for many students, and an increasing number of graduates are unable to pay back their loans on time. Delinquencies on student loans have risen dramatically over the past decade: 11.5% of graduates were at least 90 days late on paying back their loans at the end of 2013, compared with 6.2% delinquencies on student loans in 2003. Moreover, the Fed’s figures on delinquencies hide more stark data: nearly half of all students with debt aren’t currently in repayment thanks to deferments and forbearances and the fact that students are not expected to pay while they’re in school, according to van der Klaauw. What that means is that for the graduates who are actually expected to pay their loans now, the delinquency rate is roughly double the 11.5% figure.
Damn, even worse than I've heard before. I wonder if today's college kids will be a sort of "lost generation".
). 
