Despite Aid Increase, Average Senior Graduates $14,487 in Debt

Tomorrow, Harvard begins cashing in its 10,000 men.

In greenback form, George Washington, Andrew Jackson and Benjamin Franklin will make their way from the fists of graduates to the Student Loan Office. With an average debt of $14,487, Class of 2000 graduates who took student loans could spend the next 10 years paying Harvard back.

Seniors' post-graduation plans have been affected by this impending debt, even factoring in Harvard's 1998 financial aid increase that allowed some students to reduce their annual loan requirement by $2,000.

When the Class of 2000's loans are due--the first bills will arrive in January, following a six-month grace period--this debt will mean an average monthly payment of $150 to $200. Associate Director of Financial Aid Janet L. Irons says that as long as these payments don't exceed 10 to 15 percent of graduates' income, graduates should theoretically be able to pay.

And usually they do. Nationally, roughly 10 percent of those receiving student loans default on them. Harvard graduates with loan debt default at only a quarter of this national rate, according to Irons.

The federal government requires that its loans be paid back within 10 years of graduation, and Harvard has pegged its loans to the same 10-year timetable. Yet despite Harvard's low default rate, the idea of years of loan debt is daunting for some students even before it's time to pay back.

"I've been terrified of student loans for the past couple of years," says Mia R. Alvar '00. "Now, I'm just like, whatever. They're going to get paid back eventually."

A running criticism of student loans is that they affect seniors' post-graduation plans--dreams of working for a non-profit are shelved in favor of consulting or investment banking because of the need to make payments. Graduate schools around the country and at Harvard have addressed this problem by forgiving loans for graduates entering certain public-service fields. Some federal loans to undergraduates have similar forgiveness provisions for students who become teachers.

However, according to Irons, Harvard's own loans have no such forgiveness provision because "there hasn't been an indication that people are choosing career fields because of their indebtedness." If such a trend surfaced at the College, she said, perhaps this policy might be rethought.

However, Director of the Office of Career Services William Wright-Swadel says that over the years he's seen a number of students whose career choices have been affected by loan debt.

"Students have said to us 'I'm very interested in public services and education but I'm going to explore some more traditional options like recruiting,'" because of the need to pay off loans, Wright-Swadel said.

"All of our career counselors have had conversations with students that indicate indebtedness is one of the things they're concerned about," he said.

As he left a student loan "exit interview" last month, Matt B. Morrin '00 said his debt would "definitely" affect his decisions in the next few years, making him think twice about travel or graduate school.

"I owe a rather large amount of money," Morrin says. "There are things I might be interested in doing that it'll affect."

The More Things Change

Students' concerns voiced this year echo those of years past, despite the financial aid increase that many Class of 2000 members received.

The fall 1998 aid increase--made after a wave of similar increases in aid at Princeton, Yale, Stanford and MIT--allowed students to apply an extra $2,000 in Harvard grants toward reducing their annual "self-help" contribution--meaning loans and job income, which make up a substantial portion of aid. Students could choose whether to apply these grants to loans, job requirements or both.

Roughly two-thirds of students receiving aid used this money to reduce loans, according to Irons. Yet the average debt is only down slightly from the Class of 1999's average debt, at $14,744.

Financial Aid Office (FAO) administrators are scrambling to educate students on repaying loans, but a disparity in knowledge persists.

For example, the FAO has been holding exit interviews like the one Morrin attended. These sessions, held throughout May, are mandated by the federal government. During these sessions, FAO officials guided students through a thicket of colored forms detailing what they owe and when.

Still, during one such May session disparities in knowledge were obvious. Some students seemed very familiar with the various repayment schedules and options for deferment of loans. However, one student asked if it was possible to make payments with a credit card.

So I Have This Student Loan…

For students worried about repaying debts, Irons cautions that carelessness, not lack of funds, is the cause of most Harvard graduates' loan defaults.

Many graduates, moving often in the first years of their post-college life, simply forget to update their addresses with Harvard, and so bills go unanswered and uncollected. This is called a "technical default."

Beyond updating their addresses, the best advice to graduating seniors with loan debt is to "come up with a payment plan and stick to it religiously," according to Karen Freeman, a spokesperson for the Department of Education's Office of Student Financial Assistance, which handles federal loans.

Both Irons and Freeman said that if certain circumstances--including disability, unemployment, full-time volunteer work or enrollment in graduate school--precluded graduates from paying their loans, they should contact loan officers at Harvard to re-tailor their payment plan.

Only a small number of Harvard students have significant problems with their loans, according to Irons. The exit interviews are part of the Financial Aid Office's attempt to reduce those numbers further through education.

"We hope people along the way have been thinking about it in terms of budgeting," says Irons. However, "this is everyone's most boring topic until they have to pay back [the loans.]"