For many students, repaying college loans is an uphill battle that continues to steepen. Some 44.7 million Americans were carrying student debt as of the fourth quarter of 2017, up from 22.5 million people in 2004, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Consumer Credit Panel, which analyzes credit records from Equifax, the consumer-credit reporting firm. In total, student-loan debt stood at $1.4 trillion nationwide as of the fourth quarter of 2017, according to the New York Fed’s quarterly report on...

Source: Wall Street Journal May 07, 2018 02:15 UTC