Student loan nightmare. Man finds out his student loan balance is 200k after he graduates

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

27. I've got close to twenty years of college under my belt,

I'm published in a scientific journal or two, I used to spend hours pouring over complex journal articles...

and I found all the FAFSA and other college expense-related documentation confusing. The whole process is a mess, and he highlighted some of the key problems, from the fact that they insanely expect parents to sacrifice their financial lives on behalf of a child who dares to want to gain new skills to the fact that there are all sorts of often narrow time windows that certain parts have to be done, to the way in which large amounts of debt are next to impossible to pay down. My housemate racked up lots of debt to get her undergrad degree, and when I first met her, her debt had actually kept GROWING, because even fully employed, she couldn't make enough to keep herself alive AND pay down the debt faster than the interest rates piled it up. Even now, 16 or so years later, she's still got far more student debt left than I've got mortgage debt left.