The important cause of graduates having substantial debt is that they get offered student loans that exceed the cost of tuition and they accept the entire loan. In addition to being offered excessive student loans, students tend to get bombarded with credit card offers from banks. Temptation can be far too great for students to resist and they gravitate toward accepting one or more credit card offers.
To help cover the cost of tuition, schools should provide more work-study programs for students to participate in. This would take off some of the burden of tuition and book costs. Also, credit card companies need to stop preying on students with their offers. As for student loans, the Department of Education should stop offering excessive loan amounts to students. These entities make it seem like their helping the student pay for tuition, but really aren’t