The Big Money: New Help on Student Loans

Graduates Can Find Help Scaling Mountain of Debt Special to The Washington Post Sunday, July 5, 2009 If you've got a diploma hanging on your wall, chances are it didn't come cheap. Of the 3 million or so college seniors who donned a cap and gown this year, about two-thirds of them went into debt -- an average of $22,500 -- for the privilege of that diploma. The debt of graduate and professional students is often tens of thousands more. As graduates struggle to find jobs during the worst economic crisis of their lifetime, an adviser to the secretary of education has said he expects that the default rate on student loans, which cannot be easily renegotiated or discharged in bankruptcy, will rise. But relief is here for some. A provision of the College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007 that took effect Wednesday reduces the... [read full story]                    

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