[BrandonMarc]

But your future employer may care about indications of your character and future behavior while under their employ. I've heard of companies running credit-history checks to discern whether a prospect is a risk of embezzlement.

I'm not saying the judgement / assumptions would be correct, but it's quite possible some employers would act this way all the same.

Therefore it's a big incentive to pay your money back.

[tsotha]

But presumably if the employer cares about defaults it won't matter whether or not you get your degree since the default will show up on your credit record.