COLLEGE LOANS RECORD

One reason:

Caution:

American families, hit by bearmarket blues, are sending privatestudent loans into record territory.Unable to come up with enough oftheir own cash to plug the gapbetween college costs and collegeaid packages that include federalstudent loans, parents have turnedto private loans to make up theshortfall. Private borrowing for collegehit $5 billion in the 2001 to2002 school year, up 39% from theprevious year and 5 times the levelin 1995 to 1996. Costsat private 4-year colleges are up43% over the past decade, while thelimit on government Stafford Loanshas stayed at its 1992 level of$23,000, spread over 4 years of college.Interest rates on governmentloans are capped; on privateloans they're not. For the lowdownon college loans, check outFinAid (www.finaid.org).