The Student Loan Documentary (Broadcast Version)

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Default: the Student Loan Documentary (Broadcast Version)

The student loan documentary chronicles several stories of different borrowers from dissimilar backgrounds affected by the loan lending industry and their targeted struggle to change the system. When all the complaints are put together, it is evident that although the loan helps the students cover a smaller percentage of the school fees, trying to settle the credit later on in life or even during the school session is such a hustle to them. The team believes that Default will ignite a tough state dialogue on the student loan catastrophe, which has gone under-reported, by civilizing it.

Basing on the documentary, I think several students are slowly beginning to realize that a bachelor’s degree earned at a college level no longer guarantees a middle-class lifestyle or a white-collar job. As an alternative, recent graduates enter the actual world only to find a relentlessly underwhelming job market, whereas saddled with almost twenty-five thousand US dollars student debt. If they are not careful and find themselves a quick job to help pay back the loans, the amount can easily balloon to more than one hundred US dollars. 

Therefore, I think that the Default: The Student Loan Documentary puts a humanitarian face on the crisis around the student debt, following several incidences of beneficiaries struggling to settle their dues with the student lending industry. A good number of the featured protagonists borrowed the loans purposely to pay for college, and thereafter defaulted on the debts. In simpler terms, since they were not in a position to propel back their loans within the stipulated pay period of nine months after graduating- as is the case with several others because of the everyday expenses and the abysmal job market- the privatized loan interest rates soared way out of control rendering a once manageable debit wholly unbeatable.

Watching the documentary made me feel so sad bearing in mind that the film provides vivid explanations of the fear-provoking realisms of daunting terms like “forbearance”, “default” and “interest rates” and the manner by which the lending firms capitalize on accelerating tuition costs which financially cripple the unknowing student loan borrowers. This is a sad truth. Most 17 year olds joining campus have little knowledge what any of the lending terms mean, and are more than willing to put a sign on any dot line provided it guarantees their college attendance. In most cases, as assessed from the film, the young borrowers could not tell what their rates of interest are, the name of the lending company, and whether or not their loans are private or federal.

All things considered, I do not believe that taking student loans to finance a college education is a smart financial education because although most financing institutions frame student loans as an “investment in the future”, it reaches a tipping point where adverse costs of higher education overshadow the diminishing reimbursements. If unregulated lending and borrowing, and tuition hikes continue unchecked, schooling and education will eventually become a forgotten dream for any individual not of the affluent elite. In due course, there will be few researchers, doctors, teachers, or even lawyers because less people will be better placed to facilitate the advanced degrees. For this reason, Default does a significant role in revealing the prevalent catastrophe and demanding for better solutions to an unsustainable social issue.