Charging your tuition?
Share Now on:
Charging your tuition?
TEXT OF STORY
CHERYL GLASER: Higher ed is coming with a higher price tag. A year at college can now set you back $45,000, and a new study finds that has more students saying, charge it. Jane Lindholm reports.
JANE LINDHOLM: The federal government provides student loans at relatively low interest rates. But students can only borrow $23,000 from the feds to cover the total cost of their education.
Government grants and financial aid at many colleges and universities can make up some of the difference, but Jeff Selingo, editor at the Chronicle of Higher Education, says that’s often not enough.
JEFF SELINGO: “None of these things are keeping pace with tuition, and as a result, students have to go somewhere.”
That somewhere is increasingly private loan providers and even credit card companies.
The study from the American Council on Education says many students now carry tuition debt on their credit cards
With Americans already struggling under increasingly large consumer debt, this kind of head start could spell trouble in the future.
I’m Jane Lindholm, for Marketplace.
There’s a lot happening in the world. Through it all, Marketplace is here for you.
You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible.
Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.
