Sounds like you screwed up. Current private student loan rates are on the order of 3-5%. Refi's are less than that. And that's ignoring the newfangled stuff like ISAs where there aren't even any loans to begin with.
It seems that a whole generation must have screwed up as well - because I am far from a unique case here. The constant talk of student debt forgiveness, default rates, and tuition costs must all just be about nothing then, my bad.
What an absurd comment.
This is mostly because a lot of people got useless degrees that don't result in high paying jobs, not because of some intrinsic cost of education. The number of STEM degrees awarded [1] is far outstripped by non-STEM degrees in both number of degrees awarded and growth rate [2].
I am merely saying the current private student loan rate is 3-5%. It is not possible for substantial interest to accumulate at that rate, particularly if you factor in inflation (6.8% YoY this month...)
[1]: https://www.nsf.gov/nsb/sei/edTool/data/college-14.html [2]: https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d12/tables/dt12_310.asp
Them being 'private' loans is a bit misleading as well, as they are technically backed by the government, as far as even bankruptcy will not remove them. Navient is just the servicer & middleman to collect the profits. It's more complicated than this of course but that seems to be the gist of it.