Student Loan Rates Double After Congressional Inaction

[Igel]

9. 5-year bachelor's?

Oddly, they used to be fairly rare. They became more common in the '90s and '00s. The school I went to only in something like the mid '90s started adding a year onto the regular time to degree for undergrads. Too many were taking the extra year.

In some cases it was a bad change of major. In others, it was because of dissimilar double majors. Finally schools started having maximum #s of credits.

One downside seldom mentioned: average amount of student indebtedness increased significantly as a result. We look at the increase and pretend that it's just because costs per year have gone up.

It's hard with a family. But 4 years instead of 5 gives you one less year's worth of debt and one more year's worth of earning.