Interesting Article on Student Loans:

A 2006 study by the department's National Center for Education Statistics followed federal loan borrowers for 10 years, ending in 2003-4, and found that nearly 10 percent defaulted. (The average debt among the two-thirds of 2003-4 college graduates who use loans is about $20,000, according to the College Board.) And with more students borrowing, more students are potentially at risk.

Garrett Mockler filed for bankruptcy protection in December 2004, after months of struggling to make payments on credit cards as well as on $40,000 in student loans. He was working multiple jobs as a teacher, dancer and choreographer in Los Angeles after earning a Master of Fine Arts in 2003.

His lenders wanted more than $400 a month on top of credit card debt, Mockler said. "All my bills started piling up," he said. "It was either pay one bill or pay another or not eat or not have a roof over my head."

He had to scrimp to save $200 for the bankruptcy filing. Then he emerged from bankruptcy and found that all his student loans had stuck with him. While the federal government gave him more forgiving repayment terms on his guaranteed loans, he said, the company that had made him a private, or unguaranteed, loan had no incentive to negotiate a payment plan with him because he had no way to avoid the obligation.

While trying to learn more about student loans and his rights in dealing with lenders, Mockler said he came across StudentLoanJustice.org, Collinge's site.