> no one is writing $40k+ loans each year for students with no cosigner. This is in fact exactly what's happening. It's impossible to bankrupt out of student

> no one is writing $40k+ loans each year for students with no cosigner. This is in fact exactly what's happening. It's impossible to bankrupt out of student loans, so in theory it's a no risk loan from the loan providers perspective. Schools almost never totally phase out financial help, but they do reduce it to negligible portions e.g. $500 work study on a 50k bill. This helps keep their financial aid stats healthy while still getting paid. This type of affect will only show up when viewing the percentiles of debt students are taking on. Adding a bunch of folks who only take on $1k in debt is a great way to draw down the average.