It's a sad truth most students don't realize until graduation: College is debt. Rising tuition costs, inflated housing and meal plans, the biannual agony of textbooks and transportation fees and, of course, the costs of living culminate into a seemingly insurmountable, stress-inducing catastrophe that most students remedy with private loans, which add interest to an already devastating sum.
So when Sallie Mae announced on Jan. 23 that it intended to cut loans to students attending colleges with low graduation rates and decrease the amount of loans it offers to students with low credit scores and no cosigner, we began to worry. College costs are unacceptably high and debt is certainly less than desirable, but we often bite the bullet and deal with the price tag to attend schools like AU. Without loans, we can't even do that.
Indeed, Sallie Mae is a creditor suffering because of recent credit and economic turmoil, and it needs its earnings to sustain its private college loans. But blaming credit-less students and their universities for its 60 percent losses fails to address the real problem plaguing the college loan industry.
The undeniable truth is that college is too expensive and financial aid offices are incredibly unhelpful. As The New York Times noted nearly two years ago, tuition is rising faster than inflation (which, as recent market indicators suggest, is rising pretty quickly in 2008). Economic uncertainty coupled with the apparent pittances most financial aid offices provide their students make even slight tuition increases seem dire. Combine that with Sallie Mae's loan cut, and there's a real problem at hand.
To be frank, students should worry a bit - we can't predict whether other loan companies will follow suit. But they should also use this time to investigate other loan or scholarship opportunities, as it seems increasingly clear that Sallie Mae cares not about the students - rather, the customers - it serves.
