Title: Crushed by debt?
Headings: Crushed by debt?
Feature
Crushed by debt?
Racking up debt
Competing for support
Finding solutions
Further resources
Need money?
Video
Letters to the Editor

Content: That's the situation he finds himself in. "The counseling psychology department doesn't have an undergraduate major, so there are not enough teaching assistantships to go around for graduate students," says Avellar, the APAGS member-at-large for membership recruitment and retention. " Although my department is very supportive in furnishing students with some kind of support, I'm not guaranteed anything, so I have to scout things out from quarter to quarter." Even when students do receive assistantships, as Avellar did last summer and this semester, they're only part-time. Given his undergraduate loans, Avellar could amass up to $100,000 to $120,000 in loans by the time he finishes his degree. That's on top of the loans his parents took out on his behalf. Uncertainty about how much his debt load could grow affects his personal life, from living with multiple roommates to comparing himself to students who have funding to feeling perpetually guilty about adding to the burden of his already financially strained parents. Financial considerations have also affected his academic career. He spent his first three years as an undergraduate at a community college to save money, for example, and now feels he needs to "race out of grad school as quickly as possible to reduce debt." Avellar isn't unique in feeling stressed by his financial situation.