Student Loan Debt Rose 25% Since 2008

Student loan debt has increased 25 percent since 2008, according to new data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

The Wall Street Journal reports that student debt totaled $550 billion in this year's second quarter. Outstanding student debt stood at $440 billion in 2008.

Last year, student loan debt outpaced credit card debt for the first time in history. According to the Project on Student Debt, the average student debt for a member of the class of 2009 was $24,000.

Read here for 10 student loan tips for recent graduates.

Are you in debt? E-mail college [at] huffingtonpost [dot] com to share your story.

Comments

[Eli Andrade]

11:42 PM on 08/24/2011

At least there are people out there trying to make a difference! It is horrible that I am having to pay more for tuition every year but sites like gradonation.com and scholarmatch.org help! Maybe there should be more donors out there trying chipping in to help!

[Kathryn Tokarska]

11:28 AM on 08/18/2011

Where does the $550 billion number come from? I mean just in 08/09/10 WSJ published article came out with numbers based on finaid.org to be at over 829 billion and subsequent articles discussed the total debt to reach 1 trillion by end of 2011. Please explain the discrepancy.

[Kathryn Tokarska]

10:52 AM on 08/18/2011

Student loan debt is the MOST OPPRESSIVE phenomenon challenging young professional graduates today and it is DIRECTLY responsible for the sluggish economic conditions in our nation, which unless there is a change in this particular sector, is doomed to continue for next two decades until the borrowers die or the debt is repaid. If you don't believe me, talk to 6 professionals who are either between 25-35 years old or who graduated in the past 5 years. Ask them how they spend their money and see if they can afford what you or your employer is selling.

[laurenepierce]

12:57 PM on 08/17/2011

But why is tuition rising?? Are college graduates reaping the benefit of increase job opportunities along with this increase?

Probably not.

[ncconcernedcitizen]

11:26 PM on 08/16/2011

High debt puts US graduates at a distinct disadvantage to their global counterparts. If other countries can provide good quality affordable universities, the US should be able to offer the same.

[Kalie]

12:15 AM on 08/17/2011

Thank you. I and my children are going into debt due to the high cost of even our state schools. It shouldn't cost 80K to get an undergraduate education. 80K is what you put down on a house, not for school. Its way out of control and something must be done. Oh, right, it was. They just cut funding for student loans/grants because the GOP says to cut everything cuz they have theirs!!

[The Brain]

04:01 AM on 08/17/2011

Not really. In most foreign countries (e.g. Europe) only the best and the brightest are permitted to go to college (the rest go to trade/vocational schools). On the other hand everybody and his brother can go to college here.

[xrepublican]

09:53 PM on 08/16/2011

Can't have indentured servitude without debt.

It's all about the new serfdom. Cheapest possible labor, never-ending debt. You'll be selling your children into permanent serfdom in exchange for food and protection.

[Morena]

08:24 PM on 08/16/2011

Five loans totaling over $300k?? - Downright criminal!

Good luck Jane!

[zSpin2001]

05:57 PM on 08/16/2011

I went to school and was relatively debt free when I graduated in 1992. My first semester going full time to a state university in 1988 was 278 dollars. I then went back to school to continue my teaching certification at the same school. This required graduate credit in 2005 and my tuition would have been 2400 dollars if I went full time. Still a bargain by any stretch, but a significant increase over the years. My graduate school (a different state school) would have cost me 29,000 dollars a year just in tuition. I was teaching as a lecturer so my tuition was waved, but the school paid me less than it cost to live on campus. In a nutshell, most students aren't living in the lap of luxury while going to school. I graduated with a doctorate with a 70,000 dollar student loan debt and all I was doing was supporting my family in family student housing with a fellowship covering my tuition. I will be paying my student loan back until I am dead, and I am happy to do so, but I finished school ten years ago. The costs have gone up even more for my children. They will go to school, but only because I am a professor and they get a cut in their tuition. Other's don't have that option. Time to re-evaluate the tortured policies directed at the middle class.

[xrepublican]

09:57 PM on 08/16/2011

My degree - at a good private engineering school - costs less than one year of my oldest son's school.

First in our families to go to college, my wife and I couldn't afford it if starting out now. Thank God we've been saving since we were married for our kids college (and put off kids for a decade to improve our finances). My parents were nice enough to die without running through everything they'd built up over their lives. All they left won't even cover college for one kid.

[KIVPossum]

05:50 PM on 08/16/2011

It's sad how college costs have risen over the years. When I was in school any ambitious kid could get a part time job, work hard in the summers, and walk out of college debt free. I had a small scholorship and wa.r reparations payments from the government, so I left with cash in the bank and new car in the drive. Can't do that now.

We were fortunate the ex and I could get our kids out of school without them taking on debt, but the amounts I had to write checks for scared me.

[yeahisedit]

05:25 PM on 08/16/2011

It's kinda sad when I consider myself lucky for being poor when I was in school. State and federal grants paid for half of my schooling, and the stadford loans (w/low interest rate) I was eligible for accumulated no interest while i was still in school; but I still ended up with 45,000 in debt. My friend who was middleclass had to take out higher interest loans after her parents divorce and her dad refuse to pay for her school anymore. I don't even wanna know how much she ended up owing. (BTW I've paid off my loans and stuck it to the man by paying them off 7 years early!)

[Itsbushesfault]

05:55 PM on 08/16/2011

Are you going to pay back the grants?

[yeahisedit]

08:40 PM on 08/16/2011

nope : )

[sadame002]

05:15 PM on 08/16/2011

ONE last comment if our government needs a bail out how come I can't as a student HAHA!

[The Brain]

04:05 AM on 08/17/2011

Umm...the govt never needs a bailout since it has the power to coin money.

[v eyepete]

05:04 PM on 08/16/2011

And what did they expect with no jobs?

[Joshua Henry]

05:03 PM on 08/16/2011

The coldblooded part that people fail to mention is that once you are out of school they are on you to pay immediately. Most jobs starting pay is less than what your student debt is! How can someone take care of themselves or family with $24,000/yr salary and have $27,000 just in student loan debt. I don't think anyone in my generation thought that we would be making less than what previous generations made with a college degree! My advice is only go to college if you really want to go...a degree is worthless in this day and age.

[KIVPossum]

05:59 PM on 08/16/2011

You bring up an interesting point. We have a society now where it's necessary to have a college degree to sell furniture. There isn't a place for hard-working individuals to work up in a business anymore.

[senseandnonsense]

10:04 PM on 08/16/2011

A degree is not worthless in a society that demands credentials. But aside from that, one should go to school to become an educated person. No one can take that away from you regardless of whatever financial bind one may find oneself in.

[Kalie]

12:24 AM on 08/17/2011

Plus we need educated people to run the world. The uneducated and wealthy aren't doing such a good job.

[P Markham72]

04:52 PM on 08/16/2011

Excellent work on this article. I found it absolutely fascinating how they wrote 8 sentences to explain the obvious. Apparently there isn't much respect for the HP readers here.

[Janine547]

04:51 PM on 08/16/2011

This is the next bubble we're facing. It's being said the student loan debt is greater than that of credit card right now.