I guess it depends on where you live. In Canada you can have the loan discharged when you declare bankruptcy, after 10 years. One more thing that a young general arts student should look up before taking on a loan and joining a frat.
In the United States, student loans are almost impossible to get discharged, even in the case of bankruptcy. That is a large part of why people taking on massive student debt is so oppressive. But the original point I agree with even more due to that fact. People in their late teens and early 20s usually don't know enough about the world and where they want to be in it to sanely commit to the amounts and terms of these loans.