Fucking hell I'm so sorry for all Americans with college loans. That's insane that you paid so much and did everything right and your balance went up. That's obscene. Thank you for speaking the truth about this so hopefully more young people don't fall into that trap.

As an Australian I went to college using my government's HECS student loan scheme which has barely any interest and which gets paid off as a percentage of your tax once (and only once) you earn over a particular threshold. It also never affects your credit rating. I have paid off more than half of it so far after 5 years. That's how you do student loans - I wish America would do the same.