In an effort to reduce student loan default rates, some colleges and universities are launching programs to improve student-loan literacy and, in a few cases, offer other kinds of financial assistance to students so they don’t get too deep into debt, says the Hechinger Report. Syracuse University [1], for instance, identifies students who are over-borrowing from private lenders and helps them stop by giving them direct grants for future semesters averaging $5,000 to $7,000 per year. Called the Money Awareness Program [2], the initiative has reduced the average debt of about 100 students each in their sophomore, junior and senior year by $21,000 each. In exchange, recipients are required to attend money-management courses once a semester until they graduate. Alvernia University [3], a Catholic liberal-arts college in Pennsylvania where 86 percent of undergraduates have some type of loan averaging about $10,000, requires that all of its incoming students take an hour-long financial management seminar…