Student Debt on the Rise

Student debt is a popular topic of discussion these days with rumors of a student loan plan by Obama supposedly taking effect in 2012. Student debt has been on the rise for the past few years and was up 5% from 2009 to 2010, according to surveys by The Project on Student Debt.

The five states in which students graduated with the highest amount of student debt in 2010 were: New Hampshire, with an average of $31,048; Maine, with an average of $29,983; Iowa with an average of $29,598; and Pennsylvania, with an average of $28,599. States with the lowest averages were: Utah at $15,509, Hawaii at $15,550, New Mexico at $16,399, Nevada at $16,622, and, surprisingly, California at $18,113.

Of the 1,923 public and private nonprofit four-year colleges that granted bachelor's degrees during the 2009-2010 school year, 1,067 voluntarily reported their statistics, for a total of 55% participation. Two-thirds of students graduating in 2010 had an average of $25,250 in student loan debt. States with the highest amount of debt are mostly within the northeast and midwest regions of the country, while the west features the lowest student debt rates. At the campus level, debt varied from $950 to $55,250. Ninety-eight colleges reported average debt of more than $35,000, and 73 colleges reported more than 90% of students graduated with debt.

While debt is on the rise, so are unemployment rates. The college graduate unemployment rate in 2009 was 8.7%, and in 2010 was 9.1%, the highest annual rate on record. High school graduates' unemployment rate was more than double at 20.4% for the 20-24 age group.

Some factors of the increases in student debt include: changes in college costs, family resources, need-based grant aid and state budget cuts. Some things that attribute to student debt include: tuition, books and supplies, living expenses, such as room and board, transportation, and more.

The statistics in this report reflect graduates of public and nonprofit four-year colleges because only five of the 471 for-profit schools reported student debt data in 2010. According to a survey by the U.S. Department of Education, 95% of students attending for-profit schools borrowed 45% more money in the form of student loans than students attending nonprofit schools. Some examples of for-profit schools are Kaplan and University of Phoenix.

In the state of Maryland, during the 2009-2010 school year,54% of students graduated with an average of $21,750 in federal loan debt. On the list of schools with the most debt, Maryland ranked at number 33. By comparison, 69% of Frostburg State University graduates had an average of $20,970 in student debt, and 62% of graduates had an average of $13,798 in federal loan debt.

Of the 4,755 undergraduate students at Frostburg State University, 72.3% have received financial aid. Institutional need based grant funding awards $960,000 each year. FSU awards $100,000 annually to first generation low income college students who participate in the Student Support Services Program. They also award $1.5 million in academic scholarships and $360,000 in foundation scholarships.

The 2011-2012 cost of tuition for undergraduate Maryland residents is $5,304 per year. For students of contiguous counties, which includes Bedford, Franklin, Fulton, and Somerset, PA; Loudoun, VA; and Berkeley, Grant, Hampshire, Jefferson, Mineral, and Morgan, WV, tuition costs $11,356 per year. For out-of-state residents, tuition costs $15,196 per year. These figures do not include fees, room and board, books, transportation, and personal expenses, which cost approximately $13,500 more per year. Graduate students who live in Maryland paid $5,706 for tuition, and out-of-state graduate students paid $6,948.

Resources: http://projectonstudentdebt.org/state_by_state-data.php
http://college-insight.org/#topics/go&h=b7e4d5cc899a26d47e0f690502a53538
http://www.frostburg.edu/ungrad/fald/cost.htm

Image: http://educationviews.org/2011/12/06/no-they-cant-renege-on-student-debt-charlotte-allen/