Just had the conversation with my GF about her student loans for her law degree and my jaw was on the floor. I was blessed to have a mother who was a college professor. She opted for tuition remission for my sister and I instead of a dental plan, so I never had to take out student loans. I had no idea how terrible and predatory they are. I was always under the impression that federally backed loans offered protections for borrowers but the terms of her loan seem less fair than your typical strip mall payday advance. I bet Danny Aiello in The Professional would give a loan with better terms.
She has 8 loans through Great Lakes that are just staggering. They had her on an income based "payment plan" that not only applied zero of her payments to the principal but had her accruing interest at an unspeakable rate that can only be described as criminal. Or at least it should be. I wish I could find an investment that would grow at the rate her interest was growing. It was astonishing. The crazy part is that she is one of many, I was reading up on it last night and Great Lakes has something like 10,000,000 borrowers.