By Walker Bragman, The Daily Poster, April 8, 2021
Jessica was in her early 30s when she decided to pursue her MBA. She enrolled full-time at Columbia University after the school offered her a scholarship. To help with the rest of her tuition, Jessica relied on $72,000 in loans. Most were federal, but one was private through Wells Fargo.
That was nearly 25 years ago. After deferring her payments and then entering into an income-driven repayment plan a decade ago, she has recently begun making regular payments again. But with an interest rate of 8 percent, Jessica’s debt has now increased to roughly $200,000 — and it’s still growing.
“I’ve paid nearly $61,000 so far,” said Jessica, who lives in New York City and does consulting work for government-funded entities. “Yet in those ten years, the $72,000 principal didn’t go down one cent. All that money went to interest.”
Comments (0)