Average Student Debt: $24,000

The average student debt load for a member of the class of 2009? $24,000, according to a new report from the Project on Student Debt. This figure represents a 6 percent increase from 2008.

The report reveals that northeastern states have the highest concentration of debt, with averages across states ranging from $13,000 to $30,000. The report looked at graduates of private and public non-profit four-year colleges.

Institute for College Access & Success President Lauren Asher told the New York Times that the "consistent growth in debt over the last few years really adds up." She said students should consider federal loans over private loans as they come with more repayment options and borrower protections.

The report also noted that graduates facing loan repayment also must deal with the 8.7 percent unemployment rate among young college graduates in 2009, which rose from 5.8 percent in 2008.

What's your debt situation like? Weigh in below, or e-mail your story to [e-mail].

Comments

[Konrad Klean]

08:52 AM on 10/25/2010

Well, let us dissect this

Debt increase: Individual basis - 6%
Enrollment increase 2007 and 2008 (2009 data is not yet available) - 3.76%
CPI-U change for 2008 - 0.1%
CPI-U change for 2009 - 2.7%
CPI-U change for 2010 - 0.008 (Data available through September)

What we are looking at here is the average student debt rising faster than economic indicators which deal with consumers' spending capacity. In simple terms - degree granting institutions know that the usual behavior of people during periods of economic downturn is to seek education. The figure will also be influenced by debt data from for-profit colleges.

Take for example DeVry which costs 16,000 per semester to attend. This is more than state schools and comes with a murky reputation. However, the loan data from said school will be bundled into the package of data from Community Colleges, Private, and Public Universities - pushing the mean up.

Lastly the concern isn't so much the debt rising (people willing to invest in their education) as the debt not rising rationally to the increase in enrollments, inflation, and economic growth (which is somewhere around 2.2% right now for the year)

Another problem here are the actual degrees sought by students not being commercially viable. Those entering into liberal arts may have a harder time finding employment than those going into medicine, law, or accounting. Loan-issuing institutions however have no incentive to scrutinize prospective students because student loan debt is nearly impossible to discharge.

[Skeeve]

06:55 PM on 10/24/2010

"No worries....those of us still working, will absorb this cost, too, with our taxes!"

Please. Tax receipts don't even begin to cover the government bailouts that have occurred, much less the one that will take place when the student loan "industry" realizes it is sitting on a debt default time bomb. You're in the same boat as the graduates, you know, in debt unto the nth generation. Only you owe it to China, Japan et al.

For everyone who genuinely thinks that government spending is financed by tax receipts (hah!) and that they'll be getting screwed when the inevitable takes place, why not support legislation that will make student loans dischargeable in bankruptcy court? (You know, like they used to be). For all those who fear that they'll be letting "deadbeats" off the hook, you already did that with TARP, Fannie and Freddie, etc.

At least with this bailout you'd be freeing a generation of educated workers to be productive, and put the fruits of their labors into their own lives and communities, instead of Lloyd Blankfein's pockets.

[exmate]

09:58 AM on 10/24/2010

American colleges are so expensive that they are more accessable to mediocre rich kids than smart middle class kids. That is a waste of resources

I can give you an example of a rich kid that went to Yale on a legacy and came out an anti-intellectual and went to Harvard Graduate Business School and proposed privatizing social security.

The reason US undergraduate programs need to be dumbed down is because American secondary school graduates are far behind their European counterparts.

Medical schools in the USA tend to select candidates who want to become wealthy and are willing to work as physicians. In europe med schools select candidates who want to become doctors.”

[youvebinfarteen]

01:32 AM on 10/24/2010

Good luck paying back those student loans when all that's available is minimum wage McDonald/ Walmart type jobs if you can find a job at all. Most potential students won't consider college as an option any longer in fear of crushing debt upon graduation. In more civilized countries education is valued and college is free and the student is paid to attend. They realize that a more educated population can attract and perform better paying jobs and better compete in the world economy.

The average young person can't afford college and their parents can no longer afford to send them. So potential students just don't go. More evidence of the dumbing-down of America.

[Cat9]

05:18 PM on 10/23/2010

No worries....those of us still working, will absorb this cost, too, with our taxes!

[blueskybigstar]

11:41 AM on 10/23/2010

In this country we have a greater disparity of income than all the industrialized nations and even Central America. Americans in debt cannot start businesses and this is what happens when we enslave the same people with debt who are supposed to be the ones to lead us out of our economic funk. We have fallen to 49th in the world in life expectancy. Yes, other countries pay higher taxes, but their standard of living is maintained, the people are paid more, they have more vacation time, paying for education is not a worry, and the people who have benefited the most, the rich, pay their fair share which is much more than they pay here. Education in CA was the best in the world. Higher education only cost a few dollars. What has happened is an assault on the American people that little by little has taken away the American dream/meritocracy in every way that their thinktanks could think up. People should not have to worry about their healthcare or their education and get to the important job of getting this economy going. In Denmark, where I lived healthcare and education were of the utmost importance and was not burdened with the paperwork that is part of the reason for why everything is so unaffordable here. Another reason for theinaffordability is because we have so many middlemen who have been given the right to privatize the things that should be public and cost more for this reason.

[banker67]

07:49 AM on 10/23/2010

If you're not willing to treat everyone as a sucker, a mark, an exploitable object with a well-calculated maximum return on investment, you have no hope of succeeding in the banking industry.
Just to a get an entry-level white-collar banking job, you have to at least hint that you will gladly bankrupt your own father, if your boss might profit from that and advance your career.
After that, every rung on the corporate ladder is slippery with the financial blood of victims. Lucky for you, your executive health care plan covers 100% of your psychotherapy and meds, just as your astronomical bonus effortlessly pays for your new 120-foot yacht.

[TimothyLasVegas]

06:37 PM on 10/22/2010

Democrats have honorable goals. I share many of their core beliefs - Affordable Healthcare for all, College access for all, etc. But, with due respect, Democrats promote the worst solutions to solving these problems. In fact, many times the solutions that are promoted make the problem even worse.

Example:

Democrats like to think that they are the defenders of the middle class. They also are big supporters of student loans. Yet, the student loan program has been incredibly destructive to the middle class.

If people would ever sit down and think about what has really happened because of student loans, they would understand that the incredible subsidies to demand have dramatically inflated the price of tuition at a rate 4 times the CPI over the past 40 years. And, now we have an entire generation that is stuck paying off tens of thousands of dollars of loans, instead of building their future and expanding our economy.

You want everyone to go to college? Expand supply (which will lower the price of supply). Lower the cost the develop supply (which will further lower the cost of supply).

Please, please, please, please! Stop promoting solutions that subsidize demand. These solutions always generate higher prices, which creates the need for more subsidies while at the same time increase the percentage of demand who need subsidies. And, then the cycle continues to feed on itself.

I don't think most people can grasp the financial hurdles facing recent college graduates. They are in real trouble.

[cornelison]

01:01 AM on 10/23/2010

Here are some solutions;
1. Cut military spending by 1/3.
2. Raise taxes to the rich back to pre-1980 levels.
3. Make corporations pay their fair share of taxes. In some cases they pay nothing at all!
4. Public health care won't bankrupt the country like health insurance companies are
bankrupting the middle class.
5. Bring back the major manufacturing jobs that politicians have sent abroad.

[TimothyLasVegas]

05:16 PM on 10/23/2010

How will any of the points, that you listed, lower the price of college tuition?

I comment on a real problem. I explain how the current solutions are not achieving the goals, while at the same time offering my support to the goal. I list data to back up my point. I even offer real solutions to correct the problem and achieve the goal.

What do you do? You just repeat standard Democratic talking points that have absolutely nothing to do with solving the problem.

Is it any wonder why we can never get people to work together to solve the big problems facing our country.

[alienator]

06:01 PM on 10/22/2010

omg... dude in the background is about to lose his member

[saint bernard mom]

05:53 PM on 10/22/2010

As a parent, this article really surprises me. I had no idea that kids are racking up that kind of debt getting a college education. Where are the high school counselors or parents? The very first thing my DD's high school counselor said to the Jr class was "Everyone can go to college and there are at least 5-10 ways to go that do not cost anything". Also, there were, (and I'm sure there are even more now) tons of books for the parents that tell you how to get an education for your kids.

DD did the working (where her workplace picked up the tab for the education) full-time and going to school part-time route. She went to school nights and weekends and it took 13 years to get her Masters in computer technology, but she was able to move up the workplace ladder while getting her degrees. My brother and sister also have Masters and no debt and other sisters with Bachelors' with no debt.

If anyone has any kids heading for college, contact the high school counselor for help with this. I would be happy to list some options that I remember for going to college that don't put you in debt forever.

[markas214]

05:49 PM on 10/22/2010

Is this any surprise? In many countries college is free and the rest very affordable. In the US we have the banks involved providing non-dischargable debt. My daughter could not get a job and they would not defer her payments. Now she is in default and while she had paid her balance down to $13,000 from $22,000 while she was employed the bank hit her with fees of over $8,000 for defaulting. So now the debt is back where she started accruing interst. We are paying what we can to help her from being buried and having her life ruined by the bank during this tough job market. She works 2 days a week at Petco. Where's the Tea Party outrage on this issue? Oh that's right every man for himself while I get Medicare and Social Security.

[13champlain]

06:04 PM on 10/22/2010

define "free"

Someone pays

[cornelius113]

10:58 PM on 10/23/2010

What degree does she have?

[carrot6]

05:31 PM on 10/22/2010

Those liberal institutions of higher learning sucking the American families dry! Shame on them!

[mathme]

05:36 PM on 10/22/2010

Ugh.

[carrot6]

05:41 PM on 10/22/2010

Let me simplify. The liberal institutions of higher learning in this country (universities) are run by self described liberals. These self described liberals set the price structure for these schools at an astronimical rate. Clearly it does not cost $50,000 a year to educate a 19 year old. The people who run these institutions set the prices high so they can sit back, collect a nice paycheck, hire grad students to actually teach, pontificate abou how capitalism destroys, get tenure, and then get a nice pension on the back of working class Americans. Clear enough for you?

[markas214]

05:50 PM on 10/22/2010

Wall Street and banks trap students into nondischargable loans. They make a fortune on financing education. That is the problem.

[Cat9]

05:20 PM on 10/23/2010

"Trap" students - ohhhhh come on!

[MarkInTexas]

05:30 PM on 10/22/2010

Let's just keep squeezing the middle class out of higher education. Way to stay competitve America!

[bllnsinchnge]

05:23 PM on 10/22/2010

Everyone gets a student loan, a new citizens right. That is just where wall street wants you, in debt and making interest only payments for decades.

[carrot6]

05:32 PM on 10/22/2010

Wall Street has nothing to do with the $50,000 a year that these schools charge. If the government stopped the gravy train - the prices would drop! Econ 101....guess you don't have any debt!

[mathme]

05:38 PM on 10/22/2010

Many departments survive on grants, no grants, no funding to pay faculty. Universities aren't exactly rolling in cash. This is an era of departmental cuts... I don't mean that they're firing some faculty, departments are being cut. Of course some people who think that we should only know how to do math and know some basic historical facts will applaud this because knowing how to think is for elitists.

[bllnsinchnge]

05:52 PM on 10/22/2010

I have a mortgage, that is all. You are absolutely right about the gvt. gravy train though, here is a video about it
start at 50sec mark
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DteBlI2eihA&feature=related

[13champlain]

04:58 PM on 10/22/2010

College's have been dumbed WAY down. Make a college degree representative of something useful, and graduates will have a much better chance of paying off loans. Look at the percentages of sociology majors at major state funded U's....what in the world do these people think they will be able to do with that upon graduation. Most liberal arts degrees are garbage. Math, Science, and English (real english not "lets debate the political ramifications of blah blah blah). Make it rigorous. I went to grad school with some folks from India, let me tell you there undergraduate programs made most US programs look like Jr. high. Of course this is but one part of the issue, but its contributes.

[carrot6]

05:35 PM on 10/22/2010

You are so right. Schools today, starting in grammar school, are so concerned about the social justice agenda that they do not teach these kids any facts or critical thinking. It really is the liberal elite run amok.