Originally published June 25 2005
Students have until July 1 to consolidate student loans
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The Richmond Times-Dispatch profiles a couple of students graduating with between $80,000 and $180,000 in loan debt.
David Hiett of Richmond made it through the College of William and Mary in the black, using family savings to pay for his education.
Now, at the age of 25 with still another year to go for his master's at Harvard in East Asia studies, Hiett is deeply in the red.
"I took out a total of $40,000 in loans," Hiett said.
So in May, he did what millions of other college students have been doing recently -- he consolidated his eligible federal loans at a historically low fixed rate, about 2.8 percent for students still in school and about 3.4 percent for college graduates.
The rate on a consolidation loan is calculated as the weighted average of the interest rate on the loans being consolidated, rounding up to the nearest one-eighth of a percent.
"They were all trying to consolidate their loans."
But a spokeswoman for one of the nation's largest loan consolidators, Collegiate Funding Services, headquartered in Fredericksburg, said that many people may still not be aware of the looming deadline for consolidating their college loans at a low rate.
A survey late last year by a subsidiary of the company found that only 37 percent of the students surveyed knew they could lower their payments by consolidating loans.
For example, borrowers who consolidate their Perkins loan -- a 5 percent loan that usually goes to the neediest students -- will lose their chance to have the loan forgiven based on their career choice.
Benjamin Heidt, an assistant commonwealth's attorney for the city of Richmond, ran up a bill of $110,000 during his time at the University of Richmond's law school.
Nicole Kelleher, who just graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University's Medical College of Virginia, knows exactly how Heidt feels, perhaps more so.
Kelleher knows other medical school graduates who owe even more.
All content posted on this site is commentary or opinion and is protected under Free Speech. Truth Publishing LLC takes sole responsibility for all content. Truth Publishing sells no hard products and earns no money from the recommendation of products. NaturalNews.com is presented for educational and commentary purposes only and should not be construed as professional advice from any licensed practitioner. Truth Publishing assumes no responsibility for the use or misuse of this material. For the full terms of usage of this material, visit www.NaturalNews.com/terms.shtml