<p>How can students go to private colleges if govt. loans only go up to 6500? For us scholarships and aid only cover 20,000 of 40,000 total. Weren't student loans higher in the past?</p>
<p>How much will your parents contribute?</p>
<p>If the school “meets need” then they have determined that your family should pay $20k per year. They can take out larger loans if they want.</p>
<p>I don’t remember fed student loans being larger, but maybe they were.</p>
<p>I don’t think federal student loans were ever higher. They were a couple of thousand a year lower until a couple of years ago.</p>
<p>In the past, when college costs were lower, federal aid was a relatively greater percent of the total. So you could say that they federal loans used to be “bigger”. Tuition/fees/housing/food/books/etc has gone up much much faster than federal aid.</p>
<p>I think it used to be that private loans were much easier to take out and many colleges encouraged students to take them which caused the current student loan crisis. Do NOT go deeply into debt for college! Speaking from experience…do not take more than the Stafford Loans.</p>
<p>I don’t think fed student loans ever covered private school total costs.</p>
<p>I think at one point, student loans were enough to cover state tuition and maybe room and board. But, that was when state tuition was very low…like a $100 per semester (or less). </p>
<p>But, with the rising costs of public school tuition, student loans have not been able to “keep up” because doing so would result in students borrowing waaaay too much. Many state schools now cost anywhere from $15k -30k per year in COA…it would be way too much debt for a student to borrow that much.</p>
<p>But, your question was about privates (which cost a lot more)… The gov’t is not really in the business to make private schools affordable since those are often a luxury selection.</p>