Over the weekend, I saw a travelling comedy troupe at a local festival. At a point in the performance where the actors were doing particularly embarrassing things for our entertainment, one joked about having a Master of Fine Arts degree but scraping together a living off tips at small events.  Then they made a joke that I have heard all too often- stay in school for ever and you’ll never have to pay back your loans.

And so today we have met the final student in our tale- borrower number three is the perpetual student.

The perpetual student has decided to postpone graduation as long as possible because loans are not "real" until you graduate. Even when presented as a joke, there is sincerity and fear behind this comment; students are worried about the future, about finding a job and paying bills. Even though staying in school longer than necessary increases total debt, it can seem like the best option available. Borrowers may not have listened very carefully to us in their entrance interviews, but on some level they are aware of how much they will be responsible for, and rather than face repayment they try to solve a problem by making bad student loan decisions. Many students work part-time or live with family while attending school, and continue to take out additional loans for as long as they are allowed, supplementing small incomes with loan money to avoid entering the full-time job market and full-time responsibilities.

How can we help the perpetual student?

There are no surprises here- our strategy is a combination of approaches we used for the pretend student and the ‘enthusiastically lost’ student. When a new term or semester begins, we talk to them about their academic progress and encourage them to seriously consider plans for the future. For example,

• Have they started making a list of potential employers they would like to research?
• Have they considered the possibility of moving to another city where demand is higher for their chosen field?
• Have they started writing a resume and cover letter, and do they need assistance?
• How are their interviewing and interpersonal skills? (Not to sound trite, but employers are hiring people, not degrees, and students' personality and lack of 'soft skills' may prevent them from career success even if they have performed well academically).

The responsibility of our institutions is to empower students to use their education and we must give them the tools necessary to accomplish this. We should work with local employers to understand what they are looking for, how well prepared they consider our students, and how we can improve our programs. We can have successful alumni speak to what worked for them in finding a job, and faculty can discuss their experience in the field and offer insights and experience.

Also, we remind students of their anticipated monthly payment amount, and show them how much this estimate has increased as the length of their program has stretched. While the problem here is typically not poor entrance counseling or failure to explain the consequences of default (awareness of these dangers is usually what keeps the student from moving forward), we do need to remind them so they do not make the same bad decisions each term.

Providing boilerplate FA handouts and minimal career services assistance is simply not good enough. In order to maintain low cohort default rates, we must educate, mentor, and assist students throughout their education.