My daughter got a scholarship that covers her tuition 100%, so she only needed loans to cover room and board. Federal oans were still not enough to cover this, in one of the least expensive state schools.
My credit sucks and we didn't qualify for a cosigned loan to cover the extra. Luckily the school offers a reasonable payment plan and I'm taking advantage of that.
She is just living in a dorm with a standard meal plan. Between this extra out of pocket cost and the books, I can't see how a lower income family could afford college.
> My credit sucks and we didn't qualify for a cosigned loan to cover the extra.
I assume by that you mean the parent PLUS loan? Yeah, the federal loan limits outside the PLUS program are pretty low, especially for underclassmen. I don't have any statistics, but I suspect most of the Department of Education's newly-issued debt (by dollar amount) is in PLUS loans since those cover the full cost of attendance.
Over 90% of American student loans are also issued by the federal government.