How To

Student Loans by the Numbers

Written by Mint.com
Published Sep 28, 2009
1 min read
The views expressed on this blog are those of the bloggers, and not necessarily those of Intuit. Third-party blogger may have received compensation for their time and services. Click here to read full disclosure on third-party bloggers. This blog does not provide legal, financial, accounting or tax advice. The content on this blog is "as is" and carries no warranties. Intuit does not warrant or guarantee the accuracy, reliability, and completeness of the content on this blog. After 20 days, comments are closed on posts. Intuit may, but has no obligation to, monitor comments. Comments that include profanity or abusive language will not be posted. Click here to read full Terms of Service.

While it’s been said you should never underestimate the value of a college education, neither should you underestimate its price. Without proper financial planning, you could be paying off those student loans for the rest of your life. College tuition costs are rising at twice the rate of inflation, in part because colleges are attempting to make up for reduced public funding under the previous administration and passing the costs on to you and your parents. The Obama administration has proposed a massive overhaul of up to $6 billion dollars in federal loans but many fear this will lead to the same kind of death spiral that got us into a financial mess with the housing crisis. The numbers tell the real story.

We’ve partnered with CollegeScholarships.org to bring you this infographic which shows you exactly what that degree may be worth and whether it will make economic sense in the long run.

For more personal finance visualizations see: WallStats.com

Embed the above image on your site
<a href="http://www.mint.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/StudentLoansByTheNumbers4.jpg" target="_blank"><img decoding="async" src="http://www.mint.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/StudentLoansByTheNumbers4.jpg" alt="StudentLoansByTheNumbers3" width="600" height="3817" /></a><br /> <br /><a href=" http://www.mint.com/invest/" target="_blank">Investment</a> help from Mint.com