Happy 4-day weekend, everyone! Wait, you’re an underclassmen and aren’t able to manipulate your schedule enough to not have classes on Friday? Sorry, sucks for you.

Ocean City, Md.

While many students may escape to the beach this weekend (particularly with the Terps having a relatively rare road opener), they should be careful about its impact on their wallets. The Wall Street Journal is reporting a dramatic increase in the amount of loans taken out last year. From Anne Checker’s story:

Students are borrowing dramatically more to pay for college, accelerating a trend that has wide-ranging implications for a generation of young people.

New numbers from the U.S. Education Department show that federal student-loan disbursements—the total amount borrowed by students and received by schools—in the 2008-09 academic year grew about 25% over the previous year, to $75.1 billion. The amount of money students borrow has long been on the rise. But last year far surpassed past increases, which ranged from as low as 1.7% in the 1998-99 school year to almost 17% in 1994-95, according to figures used in President Barack Obama’s proposed 2010 budget.

The sharp growth is “definitely above expectations,” says Robert Shireman, deputy undersecretary of the Education Department. “But we’re also in an economic situation that nobody predicted.” The eye-opening increase in borrowing is largely due to the dire economic environment, which is causing more people to seek federal loans, he says.

And all that student loan debt? Apparently it can make you sick.

Quick Hits

• Don’t blame it on the city, kids — Route 1 sucks everywhere!
• Charges have been dropped against Roberto E. Cruz, 45, who was arrested in the fatal stabbing of a Gaithersburg man in College Park — it was self-defense.
• Gov. O’Malley shakes up his staff, gets endorsed by many people. (NOTE: A later press release also said Lt. Gov. Brown has made changes to his staff).
• The trustees at Montgomery College voted to get rid of the school’s president.
• Libya’s leader wants to abolish Switzerland.

What’s Happening

• Terp football plays Saturday at 10 p.m. at heavily-favored California.
• On the homefront, the undefeated Terp Women’s soccer team plays today at 5 p.m. at Ludwig against No. 22 Santa Clara.
• After the women’s game, the men play a ranked UCLA squad at Ludwig at 8 p.m.
• Don’t like sports? Well, you could go to the beach.
  

This entry was posted on Friday, September 4th, 2009 at 9:43 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.