Giving Compass' Take:

• According to a report by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, across the country, almost a third of college students took out loans but did not finish their degree.

• How can higher ed institutions alter scholarship funding to lower this number of drop outs? How can colleges better target students that need financial support?

• Read about alternative pathways to fix student loan issues.

Alduha Leon wanted to earn a degree in marine science from Savannah State University. But between classes during the day, and night shifts at the Atlanta airport loading luggage onto planes, he was exhausted. He felt broke all the time. After three years, he dropped out.

Not having money and just the whole school thing like, man, it was so stressful. If I don’t have to be in debt, I won’t. I’d just rather do something else.

Leon was the first person in his family to go to college. His income is low enough that he qualified for a federal Pell grant, but even so he’d taken out more than $20,000 in loans to afford three years of school. When he quit, he joined more than 100,000 students in Georgia who took out federal loans and withdrew from the state’s public colleges and universities between 2013 and 2015.

Across the country, almost a third of students who took out loans left before completing a degree, according to a report by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.

On this episode of the Educate Podcast, they explore why more scholarship money is going to students with less financial need, and the challenges students face when they take on debt without getting a degree.

Read the full article on students with debt who drop out of school at The Hechinger Report