Once more, My Show of Appreciation for helping me avoid this

[sanantone]

When people accumulate a lot of student loan debt, it's due to ignorance, but not necessarily ignorance of alternative sources. There are mainstream ways of keeping debt low.

1. Don't attend an expensive college that offers little non-loan aid.
2. Attend a community college for 2 years and transfer to a public, 4-year college.
3. Do not use an excessive amount of student loans for living expenses. Try getting a part-time job, living with parents instead of a dorm, or living with roommates.
4. If you can get in, attend a school that offers a lot of non-loan aid e.g. Princeton University where the average student has less than $6,000 in debt.

This lady's situation sounds like she was paying for a long time on an income-based plan. I can't think of any other reason why a $26k loan would balloon to over $71k. When you stay on an income-based plan, you're not paying much money toward the principal. You're mostly just paying interest. So the question is, how come this woman couldn't afford to pay the full monthly payments for a $26k loan? Her monthly payments should have been rather affordable unless she was working a job that paid less than a middle class salary. This is where choosing your major and having a plan for entering your field of choice comes into play. You also have to learn how to be flexible. For example, a lot of people with bachelor's degrees in psychology are underemployed and make low wages. I bet most have never considered parole or probation. Even though they would still be underemployed because a degree isn't required, I bet a lot haven't considered law enforcement where their education could actually be helpful. If you work at a large police department, you can start out making $45k-65k after the academy.