The fall 1998 aid increase--made after a wave of similar increases in aid at Princeton, Yale, Stanford and MIT--allowed students to apply an extra $2,000 in Harvard grants toward reducing their annual "self-help" contribution--meaning loans and job income, which make up a substantial portion of aid. Students could choose whether to apply these grants to loans, job requirements or both.

Roughly two-thirds of students receiving aid used this money to reduce loans, according to Irons. Yet the average debt is only down slightly from the Class of 1999's average debt, at $14,744.

Financial Aid Office (FAO) administrators are scrambling to educate students on repaying loans, but a disparity in knowledge persists.

For example, the FAO has been holding exit interviews like the one Morrin attended. These sessions, held throughout May, are mandated by the federal government. During these sessions, FAO officials guided students through a thicket of colored forms detailing what they owe and when.

Still, during one such May session disparities in knowledge were obvious. Some students seemed very familiar with the various repayment schedules and options for deferment of loans. However, one student asked if it was possible to make payments with a credit card.

So I Have This Student Loan…

For students worried about repaying debts, Irons cautions that carelessness, not lack of funds, is the cause of most Harvard graduates' loan defaults.

Many graduates, moving often in the first years of their post-college life, simply forget to update their addresses with Harvard, and so bills go unanswered and uncollected. This is called a "technical default."