College Coach Launches Student Debt Guidance Program

WATERTOWN, Mass., June 4, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- College Coach, a division of Bright Horizons and the nation's leading provider of educational advisory services to employers, has launched a new program entitled "Education Loan Repayment Strategies."  The program uses workshops, individual counseling and online learning to help employees reduce the impact of educational debt on other aspects of their lives. 

"Education debt can be a crushing burden for families and detrimental to their performance at work," said Patrick Donovan, General Manager of College Coach.  "For many Americans, high educational loan balances have become a significant source of stress, delaying when they buy a home, a car, or even when they start a family.  Through our new program, we can help prevent student loans from becoming an overwhelming problem, reducing stress and improving well-being, which benefits the individual, their family, and their employer."

The widespread burden of student debt has become the center of national debate.  According to a report issued by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the total amount of education debt in the United States is now $870 billion, exceeding total credit card and auto loan debt.  The average education loan borrower owes $23,300, with 10 percent of the borrowers owing more than $54,000.  Additionally, the Federal Reserve report estimates that 21 percent of those borrowers are delinquent on their loans.

The Education Loan Repayment Strategies program is designed to demystify the loan repayment process.  The first step is to help borrowers identify the ways debt is interfering with their goals, whether because of the size of the monthly payments, the total balance outstanding, or the complexity of dealing with multiple loans from multiple lenders.  The next step in the process is to find ways to consolidate or reduce monthly payments, simplify the administration of repayments, and ensure that the borrower is aware of all of the programs available to help them keep their payments on track.

Education Loan Repayment Strategies is the latest component of College Coach's comprehensive college counseling services that assist families in saving for, applying to, and paying for college.  College Coach's programs are primarily offered to employers, who in turn provide College Coach as an employee benefit to millions of workers across the U.S.  College Coach has always been focused on helping people prepare to pay for college with as little debt as possible, and with this new program, College Coach can now help them deal with whatever debt they incur when paying for college.

College Coach® (www.getintocollege.com) is the nation's leading provider of educational counseling, working with families both independently and through employers to help students achieve their educational aspirations.  Founded in 1998, it became part of the Bright Horizons suite of work/life solutions in 2006.  Today, more than 75 organizations offer College Coach to its employees as a way to retain talent, enhance productivity, and improve employee well-being during a stressful and time-consuming endeavor -- the ongoing education of their children.

Bright Horizons Family Solutions® (www.brighthorizons.com) is the world's leading provider of employer-sponsored child care, early education, and work/life solutions.  Bright Horizons^® serves more than 900 clients across the U.S., Europe, Canada, and India with programs including child care and early education, back-up care, elder care, college counseling, and work/life consulting. Bright Horizons has been named for the 13^th time as one of FORTUNE magazine's "100 Best Companies to Work for in America."

SOURCE College Coach