I’m not American so the concept of a college loan is very alien to me. In my country we either pay for college tuition up front, apply for financial aid if our grades are high enough and your family is needy enough, or you don’t go at all. And In some public universities, tuition is either wholly or partially government subsidized.
I’ve heard of Americans complaining how they’ve got thousands of dollars in college debt and in some cases they take your whole adult life to pay off. So why are college loans even a thing in the US and what happens when you’re not able to pay it off?
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The cost of attending many colleges, especially if the student is living with their parents, is high enough that a few years of minimum/low wage work doesn’t even come close to paying for all of it
The public college I got my bachelor’s from charged $12k/year just in tuition and some of the mandatory fees alone. Because my family made over $45k/year, we received zero financial aid besides a merit based scholarship I lost two years in and subsidized loans. The cost of rent and food basically doubles that.
As a college education in a in-demand area is essentially a requirement for many careers, taking out loans to finance education is widely accepted
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