“The federal government requires that its loans be paid back within 10 years of graduation, and Harvard has pegged its loans to the same 10-year timetable. Yet despite Harvard's low default rate, the idea of years of loan debt is daunting for some students even before it's time to pay back.”

American journalist

David Fahrenthold is an American journalist who writes for The New York Times. He was previously a reporter for The Washington Post and has also worked as a political analyst for NBC News and MSNBC. He won the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 2017 for his coverage of Donald Trump and questions around Trump’s claimed charitable giving, including reporting tied to the 2016 United States presidential election. His work is associated with political reporting and scrutiny of public claims.