Recent Grads are forced to make sacrifices

I enrolled in grad school to defer my student loans. When you first enroll and fill out the forms, you really just care about getting your tuition and fees paid for. But once you start realizing how much you're going to have to pay back, it doesn't feel the same anymore. There was a time when I thought about changing my major, but I decided to stick it out. Still, when I think about these loans, I think about the burden on my family. I'm borrowing my mother's car; she's sacrificing her vehicle. I'm living somewhere I don't really want to live. There are a lot of things I really want to do but can't. I'd like to travel.

--Woodrow Price
Fifth-grade teacher

My husband and I are both students. He's been taking a loan out every year. He only qualified for financial aid after we got married and had our son. Seventy-five thousand dollars—this is how much we're going to owe. We're hoping that if we suffer a little now, we'll be better off down the line. When we get done with school we want to buy a house, but I think we're going to have problems. With our student loans out and credit card bills, we might not have that chance.

--Zoua Xiong
Student