Answer: After 15years have passed, the loan will be at a total of $49K, which is 2.8 times the original price of the loan.
Step-by-step explanation: The first step in "considering" the price of a loan after a certain number of years is to multiply the original price of the loan by the Annual Percentage Rate (APR), and then multiply that number by the number of years that the student loan is growing. This gives a number that we then need to add to the original price of the loan, to give us the final price of the new loan.
In this problem the original price of the loan is $17,500, and the APR is 12%, which is equal to (0.12). We are trying to find the price of the loan after 15 years, which gives us the following equations.
(17,500) (0.12) = 2,100
(2,100) (15) = 31,500
17,500 + 31,500 = 49,000
49,000 ÷ 17,500 = 2.8 times the original
In this problem, multiplying the original price of $17,500 by the APR equals $2,100. Multiplying $2,100 by 15 years equals $31,500. Adding $31,500 to the original price of $17,500 equals the final price of $49,000.