Terrence Davis and Keo'onna Keys aren't math majors, but they know enough to figure out they'd never be able to make it through FAMU without taking out thousands in student loans. A heavy burden, yes, but one they're both confident they'll take care of.

"I'm not really concerned too much about paying back a loan because I have bigger problems than that, so I feel like that'll just go along, other than God's plans, hopefully I'll be able to pay it," Davis said.

At the same time, a growing number of Florida college grads are missing their payments. The student loan delinquency rate here is almost 9.5 percent, the nation's highest.

Schools may be turning out degrees, but the economy has yet to churn out a high number of new jobs. That's a big reason new grads are defaulting, but it's not the only one.

Last year, Washington began direct government lending, taking much of the profit out of the student loan business. Community college financial aid director Bill Spiers draws a direct line between that and the growing problem of default.

"With the move to direct lending, the servicers are being paid less to do their job, which means there's increasingly less contact with the student in informing them of what the needs are to repay and how many loans they could have," he said.

So, it may not be that defaulting grads don't have the money. They may not have the one piece of knowledge they won't learn in Economics 101.

"Because you take out so many loans, you probably would forget, you probably wouldn't be able to keep up with them!" said Keys.

It's a revelation that could help turn a troubling trend around.

Most financial aid experts don't dispute the recession has taken a toll on the ability of college graduates to pay their student loan bills. And Florida's had an especially difficult time recovering, given a drop in tourism and last summer's oil spill.