Parents, Are You To BLAME for Stafford Loans?

In the last post titled, "Parents, Are You To Blame for Student Loan Debt," we discussed the rapidly increasing amount of student loan debt through Stafford loans.

There we posed the question: who is actually to blame for all of this student loan debt that has been accumulating over the years through Stafford loans. If you didn't get to read the first part of the article, you can view it here.

In this continuation of the article, we will further discuss the student loan debt crisis and who is to blame for all of these Stafford loans.

Reminiscing back on my college days, I remember a particular roommate that my friend had. Right after the semester started he was so excited because he was getting money back from the college. Yes, refund checks are wonderful. But, not this refund check. See this student wasn't getting a refund check back from an abundance of scholarships, he was getting a refund check back for an abundance of loans--- Stafford loans! Now that isn't good at all.

Right now some people might be wondering how can that be. Let me explain. When you sign up for Stafford loans or any other loans, you can either chose to sign up for the maximum amount that you are eligible for or you can just opt to take out what you need. Now some people would take out the maximum amount of Stafford loans to use for other expenses like books and living expenses.

This particular student would take out the maximum amount of money that he qualified for in Stafford loans. He would use some of the Stafford loans on books, but with the rest of it, he would buy things that made him happy like clothes, video games, or the latest phone. At the time he just saw it as "free money" but that "free money" was actually a debt tab that he was quickly increasing.

I'm pretty sure he wasn't the only student that did this. Parents, students do NOT need to take out the maximum amount of money that they qualify for in Stafford loans or any other student loans. You should only take out what is necessary to cover tuition and the school fees--- nothing more. Taking Stafford loan money and using it for the child's pleasure is a sure way to be swimming in debt upon college graduation.

In the next post, we will follow up on one last reason why we have a student loan debt crisis and how you can avoid your student from being part of that statistic so stay tuned!

By: Shanice Miller, Founder of DebtFreeCollegeGrad.com