The great thing about the holiday season is that I finally had some time over the past few weeks to relax and watch some television. When retail stores, restaurants, and gyms are closed, what else is there to do?

Here is the natural progression of my channel surfing… I start by flipping to ESPN/ESPN2 to see what bowl game is on TV. Next, I check to see what else is being broad-casted in High Definition. Assuming nothing entertaining is being shown on those 15 or so stations, I always end up checking out what is on MTV, and the other similar stations I probably should have stopped watching 5 years ago. How can you not get addicted to shows like “Run’s House”, “Made”, and my favorite “True Life”???

What has really caught my eye is a series of annoying student loan commercials I have seen on MTV. These commercials are really just cheaply produced, poorly animated, and aimed to desensitize college kids to the student loan process. Does anybody else think it is funny that these commercials appear as if I could call them today and have a check in my mailbox for $40,000 tomorrow? That is enticing and misleading to any college aged kid.

The Most important information they happen to leave out of the commercial can be found on their website in small print….

2 Undergraduates may choose to defer repayment of principal and interest until six months after graduation or ceasing to be enrolled at least half time. Immediate repayment and interest-only repayment options are also available. Graduate repayment is automatically deferred. Continuing education borrowers begin repayment the earlier of a) 180 days after the student graduates or earns a certificate; b) 180 days after the student ceases to be enrolled; or c) two years after the date of the loan disbursement. K-12 loans are immediate repayment loans.

Too many students are entering into unfavorable student loans , please make sure to not make such important decision based off of television commercials. You need to do your homework. I hope that this and future blog entries can help guide you to make more educated decisions.