"The vast majority of our schools report a very small number of students who still need loans at this time," says Richard Doherty, who heads the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities in Massachusetts. According to an August AICUM poll, 70 percent of their members have had less than 15 students experience difficulties in obtaining private loans. Only a "tiny percent" reported over 50 students with similar problems.

To be honest, says Doherty, the notion of a student loan "crisis" was "perhaps overplayed" by the media.

Michael Dannenberg, Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation, agrees. "People were running around, saying the sky is falling, that kids are going to go without federal student loans, but the DOE never said that," says Dannenberg. "Quite the opposite. Because, in truth, there never was a real crisis for students when it came to federal student loans."

"There was, however, a real crisis for some lenders who weren't able to access capital at the same low rates they'd been used to," he adds. LINK

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