Something I should say more often

[CoccoBill]

There would be fewer loans and subsequently fewer people opting to go to college.

Colleges would probably enter a period of healthy competition, where they have to produce better results than they currently do.

It would likely be an internal crisis for colleges, associated employees, and suppliers of college goods. <<<---- Some of those would get the short end of the stick even if the net effect was positive for the country as a whole.

Sounds logical. What would it mean for people from different backgrounds seeking higher education?

[wufwugy]

Sounds logical. What would it mean for people from different backgrounds seeking higher education?

There would be fewer people seeking higher education (because the cost to do so would be higher). Prospective students would be those who believe that the value they expect to get from the form of education outweighs not doing it.

There would be people on the margin, who with easy-to-get or cheap loans might opt to go to college, BUT with hard-to-get or higher cost loans would prefer to do something else.

Under these conditions, people opting for college would probably on average have higher scores, clearer views of why they're going to college and how it will help them, etc..

College graduates would stand out more than they do now. Today, as you know, there's that whole stigma of how a college degree matters less than it used to. That's true, probably because of lowered standards contributed to by policy that subsidize college more. The degree still matters a lot, just less so than it used to.