I'm Liam Knox, education reporter for Bloomberg News. I’m working on a story about how changes to federal loan programs (the end of GradPLUS, new limits on graduate lending, etc) are affecting students’ choices for where and whether to pursue postgraduate degrees, and how to finance their education. I am looking to speak with a range of borrowers—prospective, current, recent grads, parents who took on loans—about their plans for grad school as well as their experiences with federal programs being eliminated or restricted. I'm especially interested in whether you're considering private loans to replace or supplement federal ones.
I’m working with u/Betsy514 at TISLA who kindly gave this post her blessing and can vouch for its veracity.
If you’re interested in sharing, please reach out to me at lknox18@ bloomberg.net or reach me on Signal at liamknox.13. Any insight you can offer would be greatly appreciated!
Looking forward to connecting with you, and to hearing your stories.
I'm Bloomberg's Education Reporter. I want to hear how changes to federal student loan programs are affecting you
byu/Mobile-Try-5397 inStudentLoans
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3 Comments
Verifying that I’m working with this reporter
I still have some debt from my masters degree and undergrad. I’m an engineer working in tech but I see the writing on the wall for the whole industry.
I had thought that I could always go back to school and transition to another career like Law or get a PhD in a harder science, but that option is now thoroughly off the table.
In some ways not having a fallback like that is a good thing. I’m forced to focus on saving and diversifying my income to prepare for what I believe to be inevitable (mass layoffs, end of my industry). But if I do end up pursuing an entirely different career, I’m going to have to go international to receive a high quality education at an affordable price.
I do hope this forces universities to reset their pricing strategy, but the odds don’t seem high there.
I am at a loss for where to go for the best private loans and if any groups will be setup to offer lenient payback methods similar to how grad plus works.
I simply will have to get a fixed 15-20 year student loan, I am hoping there are more lenient options available as this will take 50-70% of income after graduation as a professional.
If you as a reporter are working with any groups or financial institutions that are doing this please let us know.