Got Student Loans? Find Out How Much You’ll Really Pay.

And let us know what questions you have.

More and more Americans are drowning in debt. About 44.7 million Americans currently have student debt, and in 2017 they owed more than $1.3 trillion in student loans—more than two and a half times what they owed 10 years earlier. Meanwhile, it takes them an average of 21 years to pay off that debt.

In our September/October 2018 issue, writer Ryann Liebenthal investigates the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program—and how some of its enrollees may never actually see their loans forgiven despite years of payments. It’s a rage-inducing story about America’s student debt machine and the ways in which borrowers are often cast aside by their loan companies.

One of the many issues with student loans is that borrowers often don’t get a sense of how much they’ll actually have to pay back. Interest rates, even at seemingly low amounts, can lead to borrowers paying back far more than they originally took out. We’ve built a calculator that can help you see just how much you might be paying in interest.

We would also like to hear from you: How are you reacting to these numbers? What questions do you have about your debt? We’ll work on answering some of these questions in a follow-up story. 

Adam Vieyra and Rowan Walrath contributed to the interactive.

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We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

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