U.S. citizens or permanent residents, enrolled at least half time in a qualified program at a participating school, not in default on a prior federal student loan, and not previously convicted of a drug offense while receiving federal financial aid are eligible to apply for a student loan. This chart summarizes the interest rates, loan limits, and…

College affordability is a significant factor in student access, retention, and completion. Tuition and fee rates are a component of affordability, as is the availability of financial aid programs from federal, state, institutional and private sources, among other factors. Strategically designed approaches to college affordability can better…

This dissertation consists of three chapters that examine topics in the economics of education. Chapter 1 tests the impact of holding student loan debt on borrowers' post-schooling decisions, with a focus on how it changes the way they evaluate risks when choosing between jobs. Chapter 2 analyzes the impact of an expansion of public-school choice…

In the summer of 2022, New America managed focus groups with almost 50 borrowers from across the country who reported holding federal student debt and defaulting on their loans before the COVID-19 pandemic. Focus group participants felt hopeless about their student loans, and they had good reason to feel this way. They entered the default system,…

While the tuition fee system has had a large amount of political and media attention in the last two decades, far less attention has been paid to the student maintenance system -- the amount of funding students have access to for day to day living expenses. But for many students, this funding is of more immediate importance, and can have a major…

Through the higher education act (HEA) reauthorization, congress has several opportunities to improve and simplify student loan repayment for borrowers. To address the challenges students face when repaying their loans, congress should simplify the existing federal loan repayment plans, strengthen public service loan forgiveness, eliminate loan…

Student debt levels were already pronounced before the pandemic hit, with $91.1 billion in annual federal student lending in 2019-20, up from $20.7 billion in 1990-91. Over that same period, per-student borrowing rose from $2,110 to $6,276, after adjusting for inflation. Evidence available as of Nov. 20, 2021, suggests that the COVID-19 downturn…

England's higher education funding system has been reformed many times, leading to a system based on high fees and loans. Undergraduate tuition fees for full-time students were introduced in 1998 and rose to £3,000 a year in 2006, increasing further to £9,000 in 2021. Through a series of in-depth interviews, this report from Professor Claire…

Stranded credit is credit that students have earned at a postsecondary institution, but cannot use or transfer because they have unpaid debts at the institution. Institutions will usually not issue official transcripts to students with debt, which results in the student being unable to formally document the credits they have acquired. This can…

The William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan (Direct Loan) program makes several types of federal student loans available to individuals to assist them with financing postsecondary education expenses. It represents the single largest source of federal financial assistance to support students' postsecondary educational pursuits. The U.S. Department of…