To be fair, if you make your minimum payments on federal US loans for 25 years, the loan is forgiven (although you are taxed on the amount forgiven). The income based repayment or the public service option means that you may never even touch the principal and still have your loan forgive .
I love federal student loans for many reasons, but I don't get why there are so many people in these comments talking about federal loans as if they're representative! The max you can get from the feds is $5,500 the first year, $6,500 the second, etc. if you are a dependent. Your parents can get more through a PLUS loan (not eligible for income-based repayment) or you can get more in certain cases when your parent was denied a PLUS loan (weird).
So if you're at a place that costs $30,000 in tuition, as many do, when you max out your federal loan and your parents max out the PLUS loans you need to go into the private market. None of those loans offer public service options or IBR as part of a standard deal.
The post to which I'm responding explicitly mentions federal US loans -- thank you. Lots of other folks here are not making that crucial distinction.
