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[Ray]

Excerpts from article in Chronicle of Higher Education, 10/21/05:

[T]he amounts that today's students are borrowing are clearly rising.
.... [T]he number of student loans made annually has more than doubled
since 1993. As of 2004, 70 percent of private-college students
receiving B.A.'s had taken out student loans, with a median amount of
$17,125. ...

Yet even those numbers fall short because they don't account for
off-the-books borrowing. Banks extended $11-billion in loans to
students in 2004. Many families are also taking out home-equity loans
to pay college expenses, tethering future income to the vagaries of the
housing market. ...

According to census data, when adjusted for inflation, the median
earnings of workers age 25 and older with only a bachelor's degree have
fallen for four straight years. ...

As increases in tuition have outpaced inflation year after year, boomer
parents have offered little objection. That all may change very soon.
Over the next few years, more parents accompanying high-school seniors
on campus tours will be Gen Xers, born in 1961 and after. ...

[W]e have found that, far more than boomers, Gen Xers are likely to
recall college in hindsight as a waste of time and money. Their
recollection of their own college years has morphed into a profound
skepticism bordering on cynicism, a demand for standards and
accountability ....

Many will ask whether student loans are, in fact, "financial aid" or
rather just an inducement to enroll - much as car loans are not "car
aid" but a mere inducement to buy a car.

If you are a boomer administrator, you might want to assemble a meeting
of staff members in their late 30s or early 40s who have kids in middle
or high school. Ask them those questions, and you might be startled by
the answers. ...

Finally, and most important, you should do whatever it takes to hold
the line on tuition. Today's colleges are walking a tightrope on
tuition, and the rope is getting thinner every year. ...