30% of Student Loan Borrowers Say College Wasn’t Worth the Debt

A college education can open career doors that might not be accessible with a high school diploma. But it could also mean four or more years out of the workforce and a hefty price tag, covered with debt.

A new NerdWallet survey finds that while nearly 3 in 5 Americans (57%) think four-year college is worth the cost, 30% of Americans who took out student loan debt for themselves — referred to as “student loan borrowers” throughout this report — don’t think that their college education was worth the debt. The survey, conducted online by The Harris Poll on behalf of NerdWallet, also found that just over a quarter of Americans with student loans (26%) don’t think they’ll ever completely pay them off and another 10% think it will take them 20 or more years to do so.

Regret lingers for some borrowers

More than a third of student loan borrowers (36%) regret the amount of money they borrowed in student loans, according to the survey. And for some, this regret may be compounded because the money wasn’t actually used for their education. One in 5 student loan borrowers (20%) say they borrowed more than they needed just because it was offered.

Maybe due to this regret, some borrowers are hiding their debt from their partners. The survey found that 19% of Americans with student loan debt keep their balance a secret from their significant other.

How to deal: Forgive yourself and come clean

Most of us do things in life that we wish we could take back, but it can help to reframe those regrets as lessons learned. Aim to forgive yourself for taking on more debt than you needed, or wanted, to spend on your education so you can move forward and make a plan to pay your balances off.

It’s also a good idea to come clean about your loan balances to your partner, if it feels safe to do so. They might be able to provide support, financial and otherwise, to get out of debt sooner than you planned.

Not everyone even knows what they owe

Nearly 1 in 5 student loan borrowers (19%) don’t know their current student loan balance. It’s tough to make a payoff plan without having a clear idea of what you owe and how much it’s costing you in interest. But it’s pretty easy to figure out your current balance.

How to deal: Look it up

Log in to your account with your loan servicer to find out how much you owe and what your rate is (or rates, if you have more than one loan). If you aren’t sure who your servicer is and have federal student loan debt, you can log in to the Federal Student Aid website. You’ll see your loan balance(s) and servicer(s) on your dashboard.

For private student loans, you would similarly log in to your account with your loan servicer to see your balance. If you don’t know who services your loan, pull your free credit reports from AnnualCreditReport.com. (Despite the name, you can currently access your reports for free on a weekly basis.) All of your creditors, including your loan servicer(s), should be on these reports, along with your loan balance(s). Still, it’s a good idea to then log in to your loan account for the most up-to-date debt information.

Student loan debt holding some back

Some student loan borrowers aren’t able to pursue other financial goals because of the debt from their education. Nearly a third of borrowers (31%) say their student loan debt is preventing them from buying a house, an issue likely exacerbated by rising home costs. And 36% of student loan borrowers say their balance is higher now than when they started paying on them, likely leading them to be financially worse off despite making payments.

How to deal: Make a plan and start chipping away at your debt

If you haven’t yet done so, evaluate your current repayment plan. The standard repayment plan for federal loans is 10 years. But you can stretch out that term and potentially lower the payments by opting for an income-driven repayment plan, which may result in some of your debt being forgiven after 20-25 years of on-time payments.

Income-driven repayment plans can also be a good option if you don’t think you can make payments at all. Under the new SAVE plan, lower-income borrowers will be eligible for $0 monthly payments. Those payments — even at $0 — count toward the 20-25 years of on-time payments, so you could theoretically pay nothing (if your income stays below the threshold) and still be forgiven in full at the end of that time. If your income is above the threshold, payments might still be doable, as they’re capped at 5% of discretionary income for undergraduate loans, starting in July 2024.

If your goal is paying off debt sooner than 10 years, you can stick with the standard repayment plan, but pay more than the minimums. Play around with a student loan repayment calculator to see how different payments could impact your debt payoff date.

Methodology

This survey was conducted online within the United States by The Harris Poll on behalf of NerdWallet from May 7-9, 2024, among 2,098 U.S. adults ages 18 and older, among whom 394 have student loan debt for themselves. The sampling precision of Harris online polls is measured by using a Bayesian credible interval. For this study, the sample data is accurate to within +/- 2.5 percentage points using a 95% confidence level. This credible interval will be wider among subsets of the surveyed population of interest. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables and subgroup sample sizes, please contact [email protected].

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