Overall student debt levels of recent bachelor鈥檚 degree recipients continue to rise according to , a new report from the Project on Student Debt at The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS). 聽The report includes 2013 state- and college-level debt data for graduates from colleges that opt to disclose their graduates鈥� debt. However, since very few for-profit colleges choose to disclose debt data, the report鈥檚 figures represent only public and nonprofit colleges.
- At the national level, 69 percent of graduating seniors had student loans and those that borrowed had an average debt of $28,400 鈥� a 2 percent increase over 2012. For comparison, in 2013, 50 percent of 91探花undergraduates graduated with debt, and those that borrowed graduated with an average debt load of $21,471.
- At the state level, borrowers鈥� average debt at graduation ranged from $18,656 to $32,795, and the likelihood of graduating with debt ranged from 43 to 76 percent. In six states, average debt was greater than $30,000; in one state, it was under $20,000. Nearly all the highest debt states were in the Northeast and Midwest, with the lowest debt states in the West and South. In Washington, 58 percent of graduates had debt, and those that borrowed had an average of $24,418 in loans. Debbie Cochrane, research director at TICAS and coauthor of the report, says, 鈥淭he importance of state policy and investment cannot be overstated when it comes to student debt levels.鈥�
- At the college level, borrowers鈥� average debt at graduation varied widely 鈥� ranging from less than $2,500 to more than $71,000 鈥� and the likelihood of graduating with debt also varied 鈥� running from 10 percent to 100 percent. At nearly one in five (18%) colleges, average debt rose at least 10 percent, while at 7 percent of colleges, average debt decreased by at least 10 percent. In general, colleges with higher costs had higher average debt at graduation, although that wasn鈥檛 always the case.
The authors note that the report鈥檚 data have significant limitations, primarily because colleges are not required to report debt levels for their graduates. Only 57 percent of public and nonprofit bachelor鈥檚 degree-granting colleges provided data, representing 83 percent of graduates in those sectors. And , as mentioned, were excluded because hardly any chose to disclose their graduates鈥� debt.[1] Even colleges that do provide data may understate graduates鈥� debt loads because they do not include transfer students and are often not aware of all private loans.
Thus, the report鈥檚 main recommendation is to get better debt data via federal collection of cumulative student debt data for all schools. The report also makes recommendations about reducing students鈥� need to borrow, helping students make better-informed college decisions, and simplifying .
See the report or TICAS鈥� for more information.
[1] for 2012 graduates of for-profit. four-year colleges show that the vast majority (88%) took out student loans and that borrowers graduated with an average of $39,950 in debt鈥�43 percent more than bachelor鈥檚 recipients in the other sectors. In addition, students at for-profits tend to much more frequently than students in other sectors.