The first in her family to go to college, Alicia Aiello wanted more than anything to study at Syracuse University. But tuition at the private university was expensive, her parents couldn’t help much, and she didn’t get enough financial aid to bridge the gap.
So within her first semester, Aiello found herself taking out an $18,000 bank loan she couldn’t afford, with terms she didn’t entirely understand, on which she’d owe $6,000 worth of interest before she paid back even a penny of it.
“I was really confused, and when I found out someone would give me $18,000 without a co-signer, I was really excited—until later down the line, when I found out how much I was going to owe,” Aiello says. “That was probably the biggest mistake I ever made.”
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Reprinted with permission from The Hechinger Report.
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