Student Loan - Loans and Debt Consolidation

WHAT S THAT SOUND STUDENT LOAN DEBT TICK TICK TICKING UP WASHINGTON POST

In Midtown Manhattan two years ago, the billboard-size clock that keeps track of the U.S. national debt ran out of digits when the figure ballooned to $10 trillion.

It wasnt long before a solution was found to again tick, tick, tick away how deeply the country is in the red.

Now theres another clock, only this one is online, ticking away the amount of student loan debt being amassed by college students and their parents.

Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of FinAid, one of the best Web sites for college financial aid information, has posted the Student Loan Debt Clock at www.finaid.org/studentdebtclock. The keeps a running tally of the outstanding federal and private student loans.

The last time I checked, the total was more than $848 billion. I watched in awe as the last five digits kept changing, pushing the debt load to a level that is, frankly, hard to fathom. Its a total, I realize, but I also know - and you probably do, too - what a financially debilitating effect this much student loan debt is having on families.

To develop the clock, Kantrowitz started with a conservative estimate of $665 billion in federal loans outstanding as of June. For private student loans, he used a repayment-trajectory model that he put together in addition to annual new loan volume data. Those calculations yielded $168 billion for private student loans. Combine all this debt and you get the starting estimate of $833 billion. The total increases by $2...[more]