If you’re paying a loan off, with the exception of a home mortgage, why would you 20 to 25 years to do it? Especially knowing the loan will accrue interest.
Just in case some have forgotten, student loan were never intended to be long term debts. The way it was supposed to work was that a person could borrow money to pay for their education. The loans had low interest rates and low payments to allow students to attend college without having work at the same time. Once the student graduated, they could take their fancy new degree and get gainful employment - and get the loan paid off with all the money they would be making as a result of the degree.
So, apparently, college degrees don’t make you smart . . .
Bingo! That why the screening tests in the form of SAT/ACT and GPA matter. The objective is to admit proven smart people who can master the material in a degree program. Actually graduating is a measure of tenacity to complete the process. GPA at graduation is a measure of whether the admissions criteria resulted in the desired outcome. GRE to follow.
The dropout rate of those admitted on other than merit should be tracked. The 5% carve out for affirmative action admissions in the UC system had a 95% dropout rate. Of the 5% who finished, less than 2% (2% of the 5% finishers) moved forward to grad school.