College was always the goal for Eryn Bostwick.
As a first-generation college student, Bostwick, 37, said her parents wanted to ensure she had the opportunities they didn’t have, and they believed that earning a college degree would provide her with financial stability.
Bostwick’s parents weren’t wrong — data show that a four-year college degree leads to higher earnings than a high school diploma. However, to accomplish that goal, Bostwick had to take out student loans and Pell grants. She said she wasn’t fully aware of the long-term ramifications of the debt.
She now has just over $55,000 in student loan debt, which she accrued while pursuing a bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D. at public universities with the goal of becoming a college professor. As a result, she’s put off major life decisions, like adding to her family.
“I’ve always been very careful about when I would feel comfortable bringing a child into this world,” Bostwick told Business Insider.
In vitro fertilization, or IVF, was the only way Bostwick could have a child due to existing medical conditions. While Bostwick and her husband were able to afford the initial rounds of treatments, Bostwick left her full-time job in Texas to move back to Ohio to be closer to family, and she was unable to find a job that paid enough to cover IVF, student-loan payments, and her other expenses.
She now works as a part-time teacher at two different colleges, with an income in the low five figures.
“Could we go through IVF? Sure, but then we wouldn’t be able to afford actually having a child,” Bostwick said. “It just felt like there’s too much hanging over our heads.”
Many student-loan borrowers have told Business Insider that they’ve had to put off major life decisions, like having children, retiring, or purchasing a home, due to their high debt loads. The year ahead could bring even more financial strain to borrowers — President Donald Trump’s Education Department will begin implementing a repayment overhaul in July, which includes new repayment plans with higher monthly payments.
The uncertainty of what’s to come in the student-loan industry has borrowers like Bostwick wary of making major life decisions that could become significant financial burdens.
“It feels like any power was taken from me, all because of a decision I made when I was 18 years old that I didn’t completely comprehend, that my parents didn’t completely comprehend, that I felt was necessary in order to create this better life for myself,” Bostwick said. “And now it’s really just become a noose around my neck.”
‘Unbelievably frustrating’
Bostwick said she has 71 qualifying payments toward the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which forgives student debt for government and nonprofit workers after 10 years, or 120 qualifying payments.
However, she is also enrolled in the SAVE plan, created by former President Joe Biden and intended to provide borrowers with cheaper monthly payments and a shorter timeline to debt relief. Borrowers on the plan have been in forbearance since July 2024 due to litigation, meaning that PSLF borrowers have not been receiving credit toward forgiveness during that period.
Additionally, Trump’s administration announced a proposed settlement to eliminate the plan. If a court approves the settlement, SAVE borrowers would have a limited time to enroll in a new income-driven repayment plan with higher payments.
“The law is clear: if you take out a loan, you must pay it back,” Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent said in a statement alongside the announcement of the proposed settlement.
It’s not that simple, Bostwick said. Many of the students she teaches are first-generation, like herself, and they pursued higher education because they were told it’s the best way to achieve upward mobility and financial stability. Given her experience with student debt, Bostwick said she “makes it her mission” to ensure her students are aware of the implications of taking out loans, and that a degree isn’t always necessary to pursue certain career paths.
“I’ve never once heard somebody say they don’t want to be able to take out loans and never pay them back,” Bostwick said. “They want to be able to pay their loans back, but the current system makes it nearly impossible.”
Trump’s Department of Education said it’s working to improve the system. It just concluded negotiations on proposals aimed at preventing borrowers from taking out unaffordable debt, and it has previously said that its changes to repayment are aimed at reducing complexity in the student-loan industry.
Bostwick said she isn’t getting her hopes up.
“I just feel like I’ve constantly been trying to keep my head above the water, and it’s never really been good enough,” she said. “It’s unbelievably frustrating.”
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