Besides, where in the academic curriculum would you put something like credit reports and scores? This happened to be one of the first things that Champlain chose to focus on. Part of the reason was simple convenience: The Champlain Housing Trust, a nonprofit group, offered to teach one of the courses and train other instructors, who now handle the introductory material.

Making good credit the foundation of financial sophistication makes a certain amount of sense. First of all, it’s complicated. Even the experts can’t always explain why a FICO credit score moves the way that it does, though mastering its basic components is not impossible.

More important, a person’s credit status is becoming a factor in a growing number of areas, including car insurance and hiring for many jobs. Also, younger people tend to have worse credit scores because the age of the accounts in the credit file is a factor in the formula. That can cost them when borrowing, and they are punished doubly because they generally have less income to put toward the higher payments that can result from a lower credit score.

Champlain has chosen to train students to teach its introductory class on credit, a strategy that is fraught with all sorts of danger given how complicated the topic can be. I was impressed, however, with the student teachers I quizzed, and the materials they share with their fellow undergraduates were 100 percent accurate as well.

“We wanted to create little foot soldiers to go out and spread the word,” said Shelli Goldsweig, who runs the life skills program at Champlain, which includes the financial sophistication workshops. Spreading the word was essential, in fact, given how little students seemed to know about how much a higher credit card interest rate could cost them. “When a peer tells them that a computer will cost 21 percent instead of 9 percent if they make the following mistakes, it carries a lot more weight than if I said it.”

Not surprisingly, the student teachers often discover huge misconceptions about credit among their classmates  and their parents. “My mom wanted to know why I needed to know so much about this now,” said Michaela Fortin, 21, who is a senior peer adviser. “It’s not like I’m getting a car or buying a home.”