Worth noting that the Brookings study says: "We do find that students with higher expected contributions are more likely to be unaware that they have federal d

Worth noting that the Brookings study says: "We do find that students with higher expected contributions are more likely to be unaware that they have federal debt (or any debt). This may be because these students’ parents made the decision for them to take out loans, perhaps with the informal understanding that the parents would later pay it back (note that students can usually obtain loans on more favorable terms than their parents). In some cases, the lack of knowledge about cost and debt may stem from parents proactively managing their children’s decisions about education." And that the first study was an informal survey conducted by LendEDU, a company that recommends and reviews student loan refinance companies. That said, I think confusion and misinformation about loans likely does have a large contribution to the US student loan debt. It is unclear how statistically founded the contribution is.