Average Student Loan Debt

danieldalessandro | Aug 25, 2009 | Views: 622 |

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The average student loan debt for graduating seniors has been steadily increasing over the past decade or so with more and more college students having to take out a whole variety of different kinds of student loans to be able to attend college. Only about a generation ago attending university only cost about a quarter of what it does today, and it was fairly uncommon to graduate with anything more than a few thousand dollars in debt. In today’s modern world the costs to attend college have skyrocketed at sometimes above the rate of inflation and students are almost forced to look for different methods of financing beyond the conventional federal student loans that virtually every college student is eligible for.

The average student loan debt for a student who is just graduating college is estimated to be between twenty-two and twenty-four thousand dollars. This figure doesn’t include non credit based PLUS student loans or other kinds of parent student loans in which the parent takes on the responsibility for the loan. This figure is still actually a bit misleading, and in reality the figure is higher because it is actually an average, and with averages you must take into account all of the students who get full scholarships and other kinds of grants who don’t have to ever pay anything out of their own pockets to attend school. In reality the figure is probably upwards of forty thousand dollars and I’m willing to bet you that after further statistical analysis you would be able to see that there are certain segments of the population that are taking on a much larger debt burden due to their financial circumstances.

So why has the average student loan debt surged upwards so fast over the past ten to fifteen years or so? It is partly due to the rising costs of tuition and living at college, as these costs have increased significantly over the past ten to fifteen years or so and they continue to rise at an alarming rate. This is especially true for private universities that on average cost over thirty thousand dollars a year to attend if you are pursuing an undergraduate degree and plan to live on campus. Every year these costs get handed down to the college student and these big universities and colleges simply expect the student to accept it or look elsewhere to attend. The sad thing is this trend doesn’t look like its going to end anytime soon, and at least for the near future you can continue to plan on spending more on college each year especially if you want to attend a private college.

The average student loan debt hasn’t increased to this level only by virtue of the rising costs of attending school, and rather this mounting debt level is also due to the emergence of the private student loan industry and the easy access they provide college students. When a college student still needs financing beyond the scholarships, grants, and federal aid they receive they now have the option to turn to these private student loans and the lenders that provide these loans make it easy for a student to take out even more than what they need to attend school. The entire private student loan industry has been thriving over the past decade or so and because the industry is so large you can be guaranteed that it isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. These private loans do provide some students the ability to attend school and I think that that is great, but in the end you have to ask yourself—at what cost? Regardless, the average student loan debt is rising each year and until some significant changes are made in the way a college student can finance their college education I don’t see it slowing down at any point in the near future.

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