 In an interview with the "New York Times Magazine," Siegel dismissed the incident as a "prank".He resumed writing for "The New Republic" in early 2007.In June 2015, Siegel wrote an op-ed piece for "The New York Times" entitled "Why I Defaulted on My Student Loans", in which he defended defaulting on the loans he received for living expenses while on full scholarship and working his way through college and graduate school at Columbia University, writing that “[t]he millions of young people today, who collectively owe over $1 trillion in loans, may want to consider my example.”

Economist Susan Dynarski wrote that Siegel is not typical of student loan defaulters both in that the typical student-loan recipient attends a public university and in that only two percent of those borrowing to fund a graduate degree default on their loans.