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Student Debt Causing a Lag in Life Moves

051816_debtStudent debt is taking a staggering toll on new graduates to the point where many feel their lives are “hung up” and they can’t make major moves such as getting married, buying a house or pursuing more education, a new survey released Tuesday states.

“Rather than opening up pathways to success, in some cases, these big education bills are having the reverse effect,” said Chris Duchesne, vice president at EdAssist, a company that helps businesses with their tuition assistance programs.

The survey—titled “Student Loan Debt: Who’s Paying the Cost?”—revealed a number of troubling statistics about the practical ways that student loans are impacting college graduates in their everyday lives.

For instance, the survey found that:

Scholars differ over the extent to which the survey accurately portrays the plight of student loan borrowers.

“You have to take all of this with a grain of salt,” said Anthony Carnevale, director of the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce.

Carnevale noted that the survey is based on the “self-reported feelings of debt-holders, which is not the most reliable source of information on this question.”

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