Public-College Graduates Accrue Almost as Much Student-Loan Debt as Private-College Peers, Report Says
By STEPHEN BURD
http://chronicle.com/daily/2006/08/2006083003n.htm
Students who attend public universities and state colleges graduate with nearly as much student-loan debt as those at private colleges on average, according to a report released on Tuesday.
The report, "Student Debt and the Class of 2005," is the work of the Project on Student Debt, an effort being led by Robert M. Shireman, a former senior education-policy adviser in the Clinton administration. The project, which is being financed by the Pew Charitable Trusts, is working to develop public-policy proposals to reduce the burden of student debt on those least able to afford it.
The report's authors analyzed data on the average debt levels of college students who graduated in 2005, as reported by more than 1,400 four-year colleges around the country to Peterson's, a publisher of college guidebooks.
The authors found that the average debt for seniors graduating from public colleges ranged from $23,198 in Iowa to $11,067 in Utah; the average debt of those from private colleges ranged from $32,504 in Arizona to $13,309 in Utah.
While in most states the average debt of graduates from public colleges is lower than that of private-college graduates, the reverse is true in seven states: Arkansas, Delaware, Iowa, Kentucky, North Dakota, South Carolina, and Tennessee.
The report also found that just because a state college is relatively inexpensive does not mean that its students are not taking on large debt loads. And conversely, just because a private college is costly does not mean its students are assuming unmanageable levels of debt.
In many cases, students from low-income families who attend low-cost institutions have no other option but to take out loans to pay for books, food, rent, and other living expenses. As a result, "a number of campuses with low in-state tuition," of less than $3,500, and high proportions of low-income students report having "average student debt levels of more than $20,000," the report says. Those colleges include Florida A&M University, Grambling State University, North Carolina A&T State University, and Texas Southern University.
At the same time, some of the costliest private colleges provide such generous amounts of institutional need-based aid that financially needy students do not need to borrow as much as they otherwise would if they attended lower-priced institutions.
According to the report, more than 30 private colleges "charge more than $20,000 in tuition yet report that the average debt of their graduates is $15,000 or less." Those include Amherst College, Bard College, Colgate University, the Johns Hopkins University, Macalester College, Sarah Lawrence College, Swarthmore College, Tufts University, and Williams College.
Along with the report, the project has posted on its Web site an interactive map that provides statewide averages and campus-by-campus data.