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A  Study  of  Student  Loans  and

reasonable  amount  of  intelligence,  initiative,  good  health,  and  possesses
a  reputation  for  integrity  and  for  reliability,  there  is  no  reason  why  he
should  not  get  a  loan  if  he  needs  the  money.  His  intelligence  can  be
judged  by  his  academic  Standing;  his  enterprise  by  what  he  is  already
doing  to  help  himself;  his  health  can  be  ascertained;  and  his  integrity
and  reliability  can  be  judged  by  his  past  performances  both  in  his  home
community  and  the  university  community.  These  are  the  measures  which
are  available  to  those  who  must  select  the  risk.  They  are  not  fool-proof,
but  if  used  with  caution  and  discretion,  they  are  valuable  and  furnish
sufficient  data  on  which  to  take  a  chance.  There  will  be  misjudgments
and  consequent  losses,  of  course,  but  the  losses  can  be  reduced  to  a
minimum.  There  will  be  further  losses  due  to  deaths,  but  losses  due
to  deaths  and  the  force  of  circumstances  will  constitute  a  very  small  part
of  the  total  money  loaned.  Notwithstanding  such  losses,  by  not  loaning
more  than  the  Student  will  be  able  to  repay,  by  charging  a  fair  rate  of
interest,  and  by  adopting  some  form  of  group  guarantee,  Student  loan
funds  should  not  only  be  kept  intact,  but  should  increase  of  their  own
momentum.
Size  of  Loan
There  is  at  present  a  wide  Variation  between  the  amounts  of  money
that  different  institutions  will  loan  to  one  Student.  Some  will  give
him  a  loan  during  each  of  his  last  three  years  in  College,  others  will  make
him  a  loan  in  both  his  junior  and  senior  years,  and  still  others  will  extend
a  loan  but  once  during  his  College  career.  The  size  of  the  loan  varies  with
the  number  of  times  that  the  institution  is  willing  to  extend  a  loan  to
the  same  Student.  The  following  figures  compiled  by  the  Student  Loan
Information  Bureau  show  the  maximum  amount  which  an  institution
will  lend  to  a  Student:

Maximum  Amount  Loaned
to  One  Student  Number  of  Institutions
$1,000  (during  whole  of  College  career)  2
500  2
450
400  2
350  4
300  14
250  18
200  36
150  17
100  48
50  7
25-50  (emergency  loan)  4

No  guiding  principle  can  be  deducted  from  this  Compilation.  If  it  is
possible  to  loan  $1,000  to  each  borrowing  Student  in  two  institutions,  no