the average US public university is about $11,700 for tuition. that doesn’t count room and board if you are staying in a dorm in campus. private universities are much more.

It’s a loan like any other loan to help with or completely cover the cost of attending college/university. The main difference is that there are certain regulations that lenders are supposed to follow. Loans are needed because there are schools that are tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars per semester and it’s all but impossible to pay for out of pocket for the vast majority of students.

College is very expensive in the US, with the average “in-state” school costing $26K for someone who lives on campus and $56K for a private institution. Since a majority of undergraduates are teenagers with virtually no savings, they take on loans to pay for college. Also unlike traditional loans where you can declare bankruptcy, there’s really loans are very difficult to get forgiven.

There obviously a lot more to it, but that’s the gist in three sentences.

It’s a loan made of public money that universities seem to think is an open faucet and upcharge a ridiculous amount for tuition.

Lots of Americans are insecure and are convinced that they need to go to a $7,000/semester University or they’re a failure. For many, it’s entirely possible to get a good education without ever paying a dollar through scholarships (provided either through the state or private parties). I graduated with two bachelor’s last year and was paid about $12,000 per semester in scholarships refunds for attending a lower-cost, but still accredited, university.

So back in the mid 1900’s in the USA tuition cost a fairly reasonable amount (about 8-10 percent of a minimum wage income could be budgeted for school, depending on which one you went to) but from 1970-2020 we saw an explosion of college tuition that didn’t match inflation/CoL/income.

So now in order to budget for a public state school you need to allot about 40% of your minimum wage income for tuition. OR you can sell your life to the military and potentially die that way (if you’re even medically able and willing) in addition to the previously mentioned “go into debt until you’re 60” method that we currently use.

Somehow, while costs have been skyrocketing the quality of schooling has been going downhill for awhile now as funding gets reallocated to the things that make the most money which is just sports essentially (also why it’s so damn expensive.)