Duke is incoming freshman Lionel Watkins’ dream school, but the debt he will incur during his four years almost kept him from attending.
Watkins is part of a national trend among college students who are subject to severe student loan debt after graduation. The New York Times reported last week that student loan debt will likely exceed $1 trillion this year as Congress considers cuts in government funding for federal aid.
For the first time in U.S. history, student loan debt will exceed credit card debt, according to The New York Times. The Project on Student Debt, a nonprofit research and advocacy initiative, reported last year that the average student loan debt was $24,000, up 6 percent from 2009. With the House of Representatives proposing cuts to the Pell Grant Program, around 1.7 million low-income students—a fifth of current Pell recipients—would lose eligibility to the program, the Huffington Post reported last week. These changes, among other federal spending cuts, have forced universities across the country to reconsider the financial aid packages they are offering incoming freshmen for the upcoming school year.
“My family continues to assure me that they support my decision to attend any university, no matter the financial situation,” Watkins wrote in an email. “I, however, am very apprehensive.”
Read the full story at the Duke Chronicle.
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