<p>I was one of the lucky ones. I only had $1200 worth of loans (which was a LOT at the time considering I earned $6800 a year at my first job). However, the were all government loans that were forgiven if you worked in a low income/high priority school district. It was a five year time to forgive the full loan, I believe. I never had to pay a nickel back. I went to grad school on full fellowship. Like I said...I was VERY lucky.</p>