Eastern Michigan University assists students with debt troubles

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York recently admitted to underestimating the amount of student loan debt that has been accumulating nationally, the Washington Post reports. In an August report, the New York Fed found outstanding student loans to be at $550 billion. However, revised figures point to a marked increased - 53.7 percent - raising second quarter figures to $845 billion. Additionally, third quarter debt was $865 billion - nearly $2oo billion higher than credit card debt. One school - Eastern Michigan University - is attempting to curtail this issue by offering students help with debt collection, the Eastern Echo reports. Its collections department works with those who have a negative balance, as they're prohibited from enrolling the following term until they're out of the red. EMU's collections department deals specifically with Perkins loans. However, the government has been unable to supply it with new money recently, forcing the department to award students with only as much as it's able to collect. According to USA Today, national student debt is eventually expected to surpass $1 trillion.