It’s no secret that, with skyrocketing tuition rates, many college graduates are leaving their Alma Maters with a degree in one hand and a pile of debt in the other. As the Wall Street Journal recently reported, student loan debt has now surpassed credit-card debt: a trend that has sparked heated debate and caused many to question the very necessity of getting a college degree if that means burying yourself in student loans.
In 2008, students graduated from college with an average of $23,200 in student loans, up from an average $18,650 just four years earlier. And that’s just an average: some students graduate with six-digit debt, many are saddled with student loan payments for decades on end. In this infographic, we take a look at student loan debt in America. Which states are most saddled with loans? Does it make a difference if you go to a four-year public versus a private non-profit or private for-profit university? And just how big is the problem with student loan defaults?
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24 Comments so far
leave a commentWhy is NM blank?
@Chris Rogers
Because, the data for NM was NA.
It seems student loan debt is just about the only guaranteed thing you’ll get out of college these days. Diploma? Job? Maybe. But you can count on the loans to be there when everyone else abandons you!
So glad I was able to graduate debt-free.
Is there a reason why college tuition increases at a rate higher than inflation every year?
Many Colleges and Universitys are able to thumb their noses at society because they have a very large and powerful capitol base that draws a very comfortable income year after year.
They do not need tuition dollars in order to survive.
Many years can go by with very little enrollment, and they will still emerge rich from the grants and endowments etc.
Hence the attitude.
Student debt is high, it represents a transfer from state and federal budgets to the private individual. Tuition increases are due to cuts at schools and represents a privatization of what used to be publicly supported in the US.
It’s crazy, really. You go to college to become a historian, teacher, mathematician, chemist and then never use the education you paid thousands of dollars to obtain. However, you need that piece of paper to get your first job in the field. Higher education for anything other than a technical / engineering field is useless bc you will never be able to escape your debt.
Only in the USA. My wife has a JD/MBA, and she racked up $170k of debt in california. I did a BSc then a PhD in physics at London University; after my BSc I owed $1500 to the bank on my overdraft. When I went for the PhD, I was paid $13k/year by the government.
All that, and free healthcare too. Amazing what you can afford when you don’t fund multiple foreign wars in search of oil.
Simon.
This is a national disgrace. We can afford 12 aircraft carriers, two wars on that will end up gaining us nothing, and tax cuts for the rich but we let our students, our future, graduate with tens of thousands in debt.
It’s not right.
Education should be for the betterment of minds and communities, igniting innovation and hope, not destroying credit and leaving young people in debt.
Its a elaborate racket, almost no where else in the world does profit enter into the education domain. Ever wonder why books cost 100-600$, they know you need them, and they know you have the loan.
Students are big business, and easy business, its that simple.
For example,
Columbia College Chicago, Univ. President makes 400k+ year, in an educational field, and numerous other board members make similar. However, most of their ‘professors’ are instructors or graduates from that same undergraduate college, making nickle and dimes
Also..
All state public Universities receives federal subsidies and monies when they agree to certain terms set forth by those grants and subsidies. However, tuition continues to rise, books continue to cost thousands of dollars, and education seems to be merely smoke and mirrors, somehow these Universities find loopholes in the rules, but no one questions it because its good income and good tax dollars for the city/state that has those universities.
Young minds, have you ever had a professor who requires a mandatory book to later find he was collecting royalties as the author? Funny, eh? Not so funny when you end up not using the book and spending 100$+
Its all a system, and its been perfected by now.
Simple: Take the profit out of the educational system.
First I read the comments, whining about the high cost and “crazy” ways of the U.S.A. Then I read the numbers. The highest listed average debt was $33k.
So, let me get this straight. On average, for the price of a new car and its average 5 year loan, you can get an education that will buoy you up above the masses for the rest of your life. For the rest of your life, you will have an advantage in the workplace that gives you a higher earning potential than the average person.
Call me crazy but, I see that as a fantastic investment in one’s self and one’s future. If you can’t see that, then perhaps you need a college education worse than you thought. Woops! Catch 22!
I doubt anyone from a working class family can get through a graduate program for 33k. That figure most likely applies to a BA or AA, which as a new graduate are practically worthless in this economy. My brother has a BA in electrical engineering and still works as a waiter because its the highest paying job he can find right now.
Let me guess. You are a boomer uh. See boomers didn’t have this kind of a debt load coming out of collage and they made more money when entering the work force. If you think leaving a world of less opertunity for you children is a good public policy then you are on the right track.
To all you whining little children who went and borrowed too much to go to college, get drunk, have lots of sex and learn absolutely nothing useful towards getting an return on investment – Waaaaaaaah. Especially the ones getting MBAs. You flunked the one and only core function of your degree – business. The ability to analyze market demand/supply hence over-saturation. Nobody owes you a job if you’re so useless that you failed to see the one thing your degree should’ve prepared you for. If the first 4 years of undergrad in biz didn’t prep you for the next 2 years of over-paid punishment, you deserve what you got.
I’m a health care major and my brother is an engineering major. Neither one of us can find work since we graduated a couple months ago. We specifically chose these careers because we didn’t want to be like every other idiot with some useless degree. Low and behold we are in the same boat anyway.
I thought it was a good investment, but it hasn’t started out the way I planed….
Hey Big Mouth—No sex was going on. Just debt.
You insult this blog.
Take your words back. Apologize, and show respect.
This is very sad. But also it is very sad to know that nothing has worked inside USA.
It is totally broken and no hopes for overcome that.
My faith is gone completely as well. It is broken on so many fronts.
I have a label on my life now that says I am a slave debtor until the age of 65 or 70.
All because I wanted an education, and sat through about 30 or 40 hours of Exams.
Dear God, whare is all of this heading?
Hey young people! This is what your parents and grandparents voted for when they loyally voted for republicans over the last 30 years!
They also voted to keep your wages low. See, the majority felt that rich people should get huge tax cuts and that the middle and lower classes should suck it up like good little serf/losers.
I went to a state UNIVERSITY in the late 70s-early80s and the entire thing, books and all cost $5000. Heck, I could work in a diner and pay for it myself. But somewhere along the line people got greedy and selfish and the concept of “public good” made way for “worship the wealthy.”
Vote republican this Fall and it will only get worse for your children. Assuming you can ever afford to have any! LOL
This is why i hate the government. I am 22 y/o I attend a public college, yet I am only qualified for federal loans. Which is by the way not enough to cover my personal expenses… many would say oh why don’t you get a job..but with my health care major in ultrasound, i Can’t make me own schedule.
How why is it that i have to wait till i am 24y/o to apply for aid without my parents income? And what kill me is that when i was attending community college a lot of student will just go to college just to get a refund check of the end of the semester.
Overall, This shit is unfair, but hey that life
I believe financial aid itself has played a role in skyrocketing prices. Financial aid is basically an entitlement and students do not need to pay costs up front. From a college/university perspective, who cares, let them worry about paying the debt back later when we are out of the picture. Financial aid is a credit card for colleges and universities that they do not have to pay back.
I like this, but as a DC-resident, it’s also yet another reminder that DC actually isn’t a state. DC residents have no representation in congress, so we’re unable to directly support policy to help alleviate the problem. You should consider rewording the chart so that it doesn’t refer to DC as a state.
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