Pay attention to ways to lighten student loan load

It's no small matter. The median debt load for graduates of a four-year private college is $19,500, according to the College Board, a non-profit association of colleges and education groups. For students at public schools the figure is $15,500.

Then there's credit-card debt: More than half of undergraduates carry a balance, an average of $2,864 by their fourth year, according to the latest data available from Nellie Mae, a student loan originator. Faced with that level of debt, you easily can feel overwhelmed when you're also trying to scrape together a deposit for an apartment or buy a work wardrobe.

My Rich Uncle

Unlike, say, Sallie Mae--the Microsoft of private lending, with a portfolio of $11.5 billion in 2004--MRU doesn't rely on punitive (and lucrative) fees and penalties to keep margins up. The year-old firm's cofounders, Raza Khan, 28, and Vishal Garg, 28, are adopting the Google mantra: Don't be evil. Their proprietary software predicts student income based on transcripts, school, course of study, and other data; a business student with stellar grades might get a .25% reduction over a pottery student with a spotty record.

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http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/03/16/eveningnews/main2579808.shtml