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<div align="center"><a href="http://www.submitinfographics.com/full-size-infographics/fillthegap.png" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.submitinfographics.com/full-size-infographics/fillthegap.png" alt="infographic" width="430"><br />Click to Enlarge</a><br />Via <a href="http://www.privatestudentloans.com/fill-the-gap/"> Private Student Loans </a><br /> View Other <a href="http://www.submitinfographics.com"> Infographics </a></div> <p>

This infographic was submitted by Private Student Loans.

This is a very well-done infographic. It’s packed with information, which is for the most part delivered in a concise and visual manner. All text is there for an appropriate purpose, but if the majority of the descriptive text was removed, the viewer could still figure out what the infographic is trying to portray. Data viz is employed in most places that it could be, and is reasonably easy to interpret. The alternate ways of making money at the bottom of the infographic are funny. I thought they were intended to be suggestions and was horrified for a minute there…

The top graph took a fair amount of scrutinizing for me, though. Private 4-year and Private on Campus are accidentally identical in the key–though Private on Campus was actually more of a brownish-pink on the actual graph. Perhaps if the colors used weren’t quite so muted, it would be easier to distinguish between them. The boxes also seem to be slightly different shapes and sizes on that graph, which is a little strange. I’m also wondering why Public 2-Year is the only one without a contrasting color strip–it’s just a solid pink color.

It may have been used in the source material, but I found “hidden expenses” to be sort of a misleading term for anticipated items like textbooks and clothes. I thought it would have been referring to student fees, lab fees, etc.–school costs that are mandatory in addition to tuition.

In the grand scheme of things, these critiques are minute. This infographic is extremely informative, uses a wealth of data viz, tells a complete story and falls within the basic guidelines for proportions, info, etc. “Filling the Gap” gets an A-!

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<div align="center"><a href="http://www.collegescholarships.org/research/student-loans/" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.collegescholarships.org/research/student-loans.jpg" border="0" alt="Student Loans Scheme." /></a>Infographic by <a href="http://www.collegescholarships.org/" target="_blank">College Scholarships.org</a><br />View Other <a href="http://www.submitinfographics.com" target="_blank">Infographics</a></div> <p>

This is a great infographic created by CollegeScholarships.org that sheds light on the controversial student loan industry. The infographic begins with one simple, yet frightening fact: US student loan debt is up to $829 Billion. To explain this deficit, the infographic continues down a short time line from 1965 to 2005 to show all the points in history that led our nation to this dilemma. Next it points out that a variety of consumer protections have been taken away from student loans, making it harder to pay back loans and providing lenders far more power than one could imagine. As the infographic states, “mobsters would be jealous” of the power that lenders have when trying to get their money back from students.

Beyond simply stating the problem, this infographic continues to explain how student loans work and then suggest solutions and ways to stay out of debt. Since knowledge is power, this infographic will hopefully give prospective students the knowledge they need to steer clear of bad loans.

All in all, this infographic is well put together with a variety of great design elements that keep the viewer engaged and information easy to take in. One could spend a few seconds or a few minutes looking through it and would come away with an overwhelming need to look elsewhere for college funding, like scholarships. Therefor, the infographic serves its purpose in more ways than one.