Ty McNamee, an assistant professor of higher education at the University of Mississippi, has studied the challenges students from rural areas face in pursuing higher education. Many, if not most students, are disconnected from tangible evidence of the benefits that come from a college degree, he says.

These students need support—and instilled with the message that they, too, have a place in higher education.

Obtaining an associate degree will no doubt provide most students with an economic boost—but completing a bachelor’s degree can be life changing. 

Community colleges have steadily improved efforts to help their students transition to four-year institutions, but new research indicates that many two-year students don’t know about the services provided at their college to help them transfer or don’t use them.

As federal student loan payments resumed in October, Michele Lloyd, 57, began facing a stark reality: Between her own education loans and the debt she took on for her daughter’s college degree, she would be repaying the $110,000 total well into her seventies.

A long-standing but little-known loophole may help Lloyd and other parents shake free from one of the most restrictive and expensive forms of federal education debt—Parent Plus loans.