In the back room of an office supply store in Grand Junction, Colorado, six guys who call themselves Soul Habit practice for a holiday tree lighting concert. Tim Breckon, 29, is on the trombone putting his education to work. He also wrote the music.Breckon has a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in trombone performance, and about $78,000 in student loans.“This month I'll make my tenth or eleventh successful zero-dollar payment, which is what I can afford,” he said.Related

When going to college becomes a financial risk

Default rates highlight growing student loan crisis

Community college students face hunger and homelessness, study finds

He can pay nothing because he's in an income-based repayment plan and has never earned much above the poverty line. His music gigs don't pay much. In the summer, he loads fire retardant onto planes that fight wildfires. The rest of the year, he waits tables at a steakhouse.“I don't think I really understood how much income I would probably be making and what I would be doing, getting music degrees,” he said.Like most borrowers Breckon had to go through entrance counseling before getting that first loan check. It was online, and laid out the terms of the loan, his estimated future payments and what would happen if he defaulted.“I guess the numbers were all pretty clear on paper, but who knows what an 18-year-old really knows about that sort of thing?” he said. “I just took it because it seemed like no one who had that much money would give it away without me being able to pay it back easily, you know?”Now you might be wondering, why didn't someone pull that 18-year-old aside and say, “are you sure you want to take on this much debt for degrees in trombone performance?”“The law is clear that colleges can't discourage students from getting the loans that they're entitled to,” said U.S. Under Secretary of Education Ted Mitchell.That's right. Except in rare instances, colleges are not allowed to limit borrowing, Mitchell sai...