Are students taking the easy way out by going to Private Lenders irrespective of the price that has to be paid?

Just the other day my nice received a loan check in the region of $ 5,300 in respect of some college fees of hers. I saw the envelope and it was addressed to her and it was from a well-known private lender for students? college education. Prior to this she had never told me that she had applied for any loans on her own.

What worries me now most is that she had never even bothered to ask my two cents worth of opinion or advice on such an important matter as this. Had she gone at least to a few other lenders before deciding to take the loan from this private lender? Surely, there are many government institutions that give loans for education at very concessionary rates of interest? And how about trying to get a grant or a scholarship in which case there wouldn?t be any repayments?

I was wondering whether even that thought had ever entered her mind! Although $ 5,300 is a good thing to receive, it?s not a joke when you go to pay it back. Further, is this the one and only, or the first and the final loan of hers? I made enquiries regarding these questions that bothered me and what I found out is now driving me crazy.

The total Cost of Education that has to be paid back someday.

She owes nearly $30,000 on student loans up to now and there?s at least one more year to complete before her bachelor?s degree; after which she may have to go to Grad School to find a job in her line of profession. As she is very ambitious and the studious type, I have encouraged her to go for a Doctorate Degree, as she too is very keen about it. That means another 2 years and if she were to keep borrowing at this same rate over the next 5 years until she gets her PhD, I have calculated that she is likely to end with $ 73,000 by way of Student Loans; and that is without adjusting for normal inflation and the special high rate of increase in costs of student education these days. What a colossal sum! To pay it back over the next 10 years, she will have to set apart approximately $ 600 monthly after graduation, and if she opts for an extension to pay it over in about 20 years; she will have to pay dearly by way of additional accruing interest charges.

It is not that I begrudge the education of my nice at whatever cost, if that has to be; for education is the greatest gift we can give our children. But what I am driving at is why pay when you can get it free or at least partly free, if only you take a little trouble over it without rushing into a situation like fools where wise men fear to tread. Anyway, I cannot just put the whole blame on her for this mess and wash my hands off it. It is I who should have taken more responsibility and care over this whole matter without allowing my very young and inexperienced niece to handle her own affairs to such an extent of almost total independence.

There are plenty of Scholarships available only if you look around.

Although it could have saved a lot of money for my niece had I looked into this earlier, seeing my dniece's loan check shocked me into doing some research over the last few days into the availability of scholarships for college students. I am putting down below a gist of the results that my research yielded so that somebody or maybe many others could benefit from my research

(1) Several thousand sponsors offer scholarships and fellowships annually. The total value on offer over several free websites on scholarships annually exceeds $ 3 Billion.

(2) Most scholarships / fellowships are for students with exceptional qualifications, talents and aptitudes in diverse fields such as academic, sports, arts, music etc., as well as for those in great financial need.

(3) The way some scholarships are distributed is very interesting, Some scholarships target students with peculiar characteristics which appear in a few cases to be funny, biased, partisan, communal, unconventional, or eccentric, such as -

Scholarships meant for students exclusively from certain geographical regions.

Those targeting underrepresented or minority communities and groups.

Scholarships for certain types of disabled students, students with extremely short stature as well as very tall - above average,
Scholarships on extremely funny qualifications such as an ability to call ducks to mate, etc.