An analysis of new Education Department data provides additional evidence that students' use of more expensive private loans is rising sharply. The study, [1] from the Project on Student Debt, finds that the proportion of undergraduates who held private student loans jumped to 14 percent in 2007-8 from just 5 percent in 2003-4, according to data from the federal government's National Postsecondary Student Aid Study. Of the 2007-8 private loan borrowers, a full 26 percent did not take out any federal student loans, up four percentage points from 2003-4, and 14 percent of them did not apply for federal financial aid. The group's survey found that private loan borrowers were disproportionately represented at the more expensive for-profit and four-year nonprofit colleges.