Student Loan Debt To Exceed $1 Trillion This Year

A Massive Student Loan Debt Milestone

Student loan debt will top $1 trillion this year for the first time in history, USA Today reports.

According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, students took out more than $100 billion in loans in 2010, and will have $1 trillion in outstanding loans this year -- twice the amount of five years ago.

Politico has more on the report:

The average full-time undergraduate student borrowed $4,963 in 2010, up 63 percent from a decade earlier, even after adjusting for inflation, the report says.

Meanwhile, with a greater loan burden, the percentage of borrowers that defaulted on their student debts also rose - from 6.7 percent in 2007 to 8.8 percent in 2009.

A report last year from the Project on Student Debt put the average student debt load at $24,000.

Read below real stories from students struggling in debt from the HuffPost College series Majoring in Debt. Are you in debt? What's your student loan story? Email college@huffingtonpost.com or post in the comments section.

Brittany Baker, Allegheny College/Sarah Lawrence College

Majoring In Debt

Popular in the Community

Close

What's Hot