Default: the Student Loan Documentary

Posted by Student on 2009/02/14 @ 0630 Comments (0) (show tags and categories)

After watching the trailer for Default: the Student Loan Documentary, I eagerly anticipate the general release of this film, which focuses on the personal stories of students who have been affected by educational debt. Although there are strong political and financial overtones to the student loan bubble at large, it is important not to lose track of the actual people who will be most strongly impacted.

It is very common to read criticisms of students who have taken on more debt than they can handle, and if this film is able to speak to those criticisms, it will be a significant accomplishment. This challenge involves convincing a wide audience including people who dutifully paid all of their student loan debt, those who required no debt to begin with, those who compromised in order to avoid debt, and those who didn’t go to school at all. With an audience like that, Default might be a very difficult sell.

The following trailer is about 5 minutes long.

Excerpt from: http://www.defaultmovie.com/?page_id=2

Default: The Student Loan Documentary is a feature-length documentary chronicling the stories of borrowers from different backgrounds affected by the private student lending industry and their struggles to change the system.

In 2005 private student loans were exempted of ALL consumer protections. No matter when their loans were taken, many borrowers now find themselves in a paralyzing predicament of repaying two, three or multiple times the original amount borrowed, with no bankruptcy protection, no cap on fees and penalties and no recourse to the law. The consequences are dire, with stories of borrowers in financial and emotional ruin.

Beyond these personal accounts, DEFAULT will explain the differences between federal and private student loans, a subject often overlooked by colleges and high school counselors. It will also give detail on the rise of the private lending industry and of college debt.

While the media has focused on the disaster that sub-prime mortgages have turned out to be, only superficial attention has been given to financial giants which have been profiting by approving loans to low-income students with variable interest rates up to 25%.

As The National Consumer Law Center concluded in their March 2008 report titled “Paying The Price: The High Cost of Private Student Loans and the Dangers for Student Borrowers”, there are ominous signs that “the student loan market is headed for the same fate as the subprime mortgage industry .”

Default is directed by Aurora Meneghello and produced by Serge Bakalian. Keep an eye on the official website, which is www.defaultmovie.com. Student Loan Bubble will keep you posted as this story develops.

How will the student loan bubble affect colleges?

Posted by Student on 2009/02/10 @ 0630 Comments (0) (show tags and categories)

An inevitable consequence of the changing landscape in student loans is that colleges and universities have a mixed outlook, because those loans provide a critical source of income. According to Desmond, there is already evidence that educational institutions have altered their policies, and may be preparing even more sweeping measures for the future. Are we about to witness the same downsizing, mergers, and acquisitions that have affected recent bubble industries?

Excerpt from: http://www.forbes.com/2008/10/22/college-debt-loan…

College tuition has increased by more than three times the rate of inflation for the last 20 years, despite U.S. wages flat-lining since 2000. The average tuition at a private four-year institution grew 6.6% year-over-year in 2007 to $23,712, according to the College Board. This is pricey in itself, but when you add in all the luxe living expenses, the total bill touches $50,000 a year at the high end.

To the chagrin of financial advisers, students are increasingly turning to higher interest private loans to meet the burgeoning college bill. Private loans made up 24% of total education loans in 2006-07, up from 6% a decade ago. In 2008, students secured $20 billion in private loans–amounting to roughly a fifth of total undergraduate borrowings for the year. Taxpayers pony up, too, chipping in an average $4,000 per student through government loans and grants to private institutions, which usually come up with $3,720 in aid (often in the form of discounted tuitions) as well.

It’s a scenario familiar to anyone who watched the housing bubble blow. “We are at a trend line that cannot be sustained,” says Matt Snowling, an analyst at Friedman, Billings and Ramsey, who covers the student loan industry. “Tuition must go down, or there will be limited demand at high-priced private schools.”