Americans now owe $1.34 trillion in student debt, an amount that's second only to mortgages.
Please make sure your college years are the best ones of your life, because thanks to the debt that we are saddling you with, they almost certainly will be.
But how did we get here?
Surprisingly, the history of student loans stretches a lot longer than what you might think.
The first documented system of student loans began in the Middle Ages.
Students that couldn't afford to pay tuition would lock certain valuable items, like a Bible or books, in a chest.
That system worked actually pretty well for about 300 years, until the printing press came along, at which point the value of books decreased.
In the 1600s, elites largely funded poor college students with no expectation of ever being paid back.
It wasn't until 1838 that Harvard created its own lending agency that offered zero-interest student loans to students that couldn't afford tuition.
Later, that system expanded to other Ivy League schools.
