Please show me where an unemployed person with uncertain future prospects and neither a work history nor any assets can get an unsecured personal loan for 4-9%? I'll even give you a pass on the requirements of the loan payback being subject to employment or a minimum income, a payment cap or a term limit.
Adding to the above, as noted the edit to my previous comment, even the 15% APR number is wrong in general. An English major would have to earn over $500,000 in 7 years to hit that APR.
>Purdue, for example, caps total payments at 2.5 times what a student borrowed, so the most successful don’t feel gouged. That would be a 15 year loan at 15% APR. That IS gouging.
15% APR isn't gouging. That's a typical APR for an unsecured personal loan, which this is. Well, it's actually worse than an unsecured loan for the lender since payment is tied to employment. So, not egregious.
It's also not 15 years. The term maxes out at less than 10 years for English majors. The person being interviewed is on the hook for 8 and a half years.
EDIT: Where did you even get the 15% APR from? 2.5 times what the student borrowed does not work out to 15%, unless the debt is paid off in under 7 years.
A 15% APR over 15 years would be over 8 times the original loan amount.