How Many Students Have College Debt?

According to the Federal Reserve, 30 percent of all American adults will be drowning in student loan debt by 2020.

What percent of college students are in debt?

Student debt amounted to an average of $29,900 for the Class of 2019, with 69% of students relying on private and government student loans. Meanwhile, 14% of their parents took out federal parent PLUS loans totaling $37,200 on average.

Another frightening statistic is likely to be familiar to you: Student loan debt in the United States totals more than $1.71 trillion and is spread out among an estimated 44.7 million borrowers.

What percent of college students have no debt?

In most cases, students who attend four-year public universities graduate with a manageable level of student debt. In four-year public universities, 42% of students graduated debt-free*, and 78% did so with debts of less than $30,000*. More than $60,000 was earned by only 4% of public university grads. More over $100,000 in student loan debt is even rarer: less than half of all four-year public university undergraduates complete their degrees with more than $100,000 in debt. 1

Student Debt in Perspective

In addition to covering tuition and fees, student loans can be used to cover other educational expenditures, such as textbooks and housing and board. A four-year degree at a public university costs an average of $6,480 per year, or $25,921 in student loan debt upon graduation. Graduates of public universities, even those who did not take out loans, had an average debt of $16,300 when they graduated. 1 Debt can be put into perspective if you consider that a bachelor’s degree holder makes around $25,000 more per year than a high school graduate. 2 Over the course of their lives, bachelor’s degree holders earn an additional $1 million in wages.” 3

The proportion of student loan debtors’ income that goes toward debt repayment has remained stable or even decreased over the previous two decades.

4 Student debt payments at public four-year colleges average $269 per month, despite the fact that 42 percent of undergraduates at these institutions graduate with no student loan debt. 5 In recent years, the majority of students with federal loans became eligible for income-driven repayment plans for their federal loans.. Ten percent is a common percentage of students’ discretionary income under these arrangements. On 2011, the most current available statistics, four-year public university borrowers in income-driven repayment programs paid an average of $117 per month. 6

Some have argued in recent years that graduates’ inability to buy a home is due to their mountain of student loan debt. According to data analyzed by the White House Council of Economic Advisors, college students are more likely to become homeowners. “According to a White House report, households with student debt are more likely than those who did not go to college to buy a home by the age of 26. “As of the age of 34, college students with and without student loan debt are just as likely to buy a property as those without a college degree,” according to a new study. 6

Total Student Debt

Concerns have also been expressed about the $1.5 trillion in national student debt, which includes graduate student debt. Over the past two decades, the total amount of student debt has grown. However, this rise is largely owing to a rise in university enrollments across the country. Graduate students make up only 15 percent of post-secondary students, yet they account for an estimated 40 percent of all student loan debt. 7 As they pursue a profession in an area that pays much more, students in these schools incur greater debt. Workers with advanced degrees earn an average of $58,000 more per year than those with merely a high school diploma, on the whole. 2

Federal Student Aid Data, 2015–16 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study, National Center for Education Statistics, US Department of Education, 2015.

2. Current Population Survey, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

As of 2014, do the advantages of higher education still outweigh the costs? “, Current Issues in Economics and Finance.

“Is a Student Debt Crisis on the Horizon?” by Akers and Chingo. 2014.

For example, according to the payback estimator on studentloans.gov, a student with a debt of $29,490 would pay interest at a rate of 4.53 percent over 10 years.

White House Council of Economic Advisors, Investing in Higher Education: Benefits and challenges and the current state of student debt, July 2016.

A review of graduate student debt published by the New American Foundation’s Delisle.

How many students end up in debt?

Highlights of the report. Student loan debt in the United States currently stands at $1.75 trillion and is growing at a rate of six times the rate of the economy.*

• The average federal student loan debt for the 42.9 million Americans who have it is $37,105.
• The CARES Act of 2020 was able to provide general student debt relief to more than 35 million of these students.
• Bachelor’s degree students at US public universities borrow an average of $30,030.

Despite the fact that the total student loan debt has climbed at an average monthly rate of $56 million, growth slowed while several million federal loans were under 0% interest deferment.

COVID’s Impact on Student Debt

A surge in unemployment and 3.2 million new federal student loan borrowers contributed to the highest increase in student loan debt since 2013. However, initiatives to alleviate student debt may have contributed to a decrease in the average student loan debt.

• Students who attended public colleges and universities in May of 2020 had a default rate of 9 percent.
• Borrowers who went to private, nonprofit schools accounted for 7 percent of defaults, whereas private, for-profit school borrowers accounted for 24 percent of defaults.
• Private student loans will be in repayment 75.3 percent of the time in 2020, while 20 percent of them will be in deferment.
• Few (if any) private lenders offer deferred interest, despite the fact that many of them offer payment suspensions of up to three months.

Federal Loan Debt Under CARES

A total of $1,59 billion in federal student loan debt is owed by 42,9 million borrowers. In the second and third quarters of 2020, the CARES Act gave relief from student loan debt to at least 20 million students who qualified.

• Under the CARES Act of 2020, an estimated 35 million Americans may be eligible for student loan relief.
• While student loan debt in repayment declined by 82 percent between 2020’s second and third quarters, student loan debt in forbearance climbed by 375 percent.
• The percentage of student loans in forbearance decreased by 0.44 percent between the third and fourth quarters of the fiscal year.
• Until September 2021, 56.65% of all federal student loan debt will be in forbearance status.
• Repayment on 400,000 federal student loans, or 0.88 percent, has decreased by 97.8 percent from the second financial quarter, when 40.1% of borrowers were repaying their debts.
• There is an 8 percent default rate among kids who are still attending school.

The CARES Act does not provide relief for all types of government loans. Other payment options, such deferral or income-driven repayment plans, may still be available to borrowers with these types of loans.

How much is the average college student in debt?

According to data from U.S. News and World Report, the average student loan debt for recent college grads is about $30,000. At 9:00 a.m. on September 14, 2021 In its annual survey, U.S. News & World Report found that students graduating from the Class of 2020 owing an average of $29,927 in student debt.

Who carries the most student debt?

Debt owed to the federal government on student loans In a July 2021 analysis by academic data business MeasureOne, nearly 92 percent of student loans are controlled by the U.S. Department of Education. There are a total of 42.9 million debtors on the federal student loans. The $1.59 trillion in federal student loan debt that is now outstanding.

Why is college debt so high?

The long-term benefits of a college degree are apparent, but student loan debt may be crippling for those who take on the debt, limiting their capacity to save for retirement, preventing them from purchasing a home, and even delaying important life decisions like starting a family. Those repercussions are being felt by Americans across the country, as young college graduates today are entering the workforce with unprecedented amounts of student debt, while older Americans are still paying off such debt many years after graduating from college.

According to data provided by the Federal Reserve Bank and the U.S. Department of Education, the increase and distribution of student debt are examined below.

By 2020, student loan debt is expected to reach $1.6 trillion, more than double its 2008 level ($600 billion). According to Department of Education projections, there has been a 2% increase in the number of undergraduates and an additional 12% increase in the number of graduate students.

• Debt owed by students is rising at a greater rate than debt owed by households in general.

Student loan debt has overtaken both auto loan and credit card debt in 2010 owing to its rapid growth since 2004. The second biggest source of household debt is student loans, after mortgages.

The rise in student debt is largely due to the fact that more Americans are borrowing money to attend college. Almost three times as many households have college debt today as they were in 1989, from 8 percent to 21 percent. The frequency of student debt has increased from 15% in 1989 to 41% in 2019 for families with children under the age of 35.

An increase in the amount of student debt owing by households has contributed to the overall increase in the quantity of student debt in the United States. The average amount of student loan debt owing by households that took out loans nearly quadrupled between 1989 and 2019, even after inflation was taken into account.

Over the past few decades, graduate student borrowing has increased dramatically. Amounts borrowed by graduate students have increased from $10,000 to $18,210 over the course of the last two decades, according to the Urban Institute. For undergraduate students, the average annual loan climbed from $3,290 to $5,460 in the same time frame. A whopping 56% of all student loans are for postgraduate studies.

Banks and other private lenders owe the remaining 8 percent of all outstanding student loans, accounting for 92% of all outstanding balances. When student loans were issued by private lenders and supported by the federal government a few decades ago, there was a significant variation in the distribution.

• The average federal student loan debt of women, Black students, and students attending for-profit colleges and universities is higher than that of other borrower groups.

Women had an average of $3,000, or 10%, more student debt than males, on average. Compared to white borrowers, African-American borrowers owe an average of $13,000 more, or nearly half. Graduate school enrollment rates, the type of college attended, and post-graduation employment results all have an impact on student debt. For example, debtors who went to private, for-profit universities owing around $14,000 more than those who went to public or private, non-profit institutions, or nearly 50% more.

• Students who attend for-profit colleges and those who are African American have the highest default rates on federal student loans.

Greater average debt levels and weaker earnings and employment prospects are to blame for the higher default rate among students who attended for-profit universities. 34 percent of students who started at a for-profit school in the 2011–2012 academic year and began repaying their federal loans by 2017 defaulted on their loans, according to the most recent data available. More than twice as many black borrowers fail on their loans than white borrowers because of greater enrollment rates in these colleges. Federal loan default rates for women and men are roughly the same: 17 percent for women and 16 percent for men respectively.

• Federal student loan defaults and delinquencies are on the rise.

The amount of federal student loans in default or delinquency before the government temporarily suspended payments due to the COVID-19 outbreak was increasing. From $178 billion in 2016 to $263 billion as of early 2020, the amount of such loans has climbed by about 50%.

Experts at the Federal Reserve have found evidence that mounting student loan debt may be reducing the number of young adults in their households who become homeowners. The homeownership rate for all households fell by 4 percentage points between 2005 and 2014, whereas the rate for households headed by someone between the ages of 25 and 34 fell by approximately 9 percentage points. Student debt has also been linked to other negative effects on the economy, including slowing small company growth, reducing retirement savings, and even delaying marriage and family formation.

Why are college students broke?

Edvisors, a distributor of free Web sites that help students and parents plan and pay for college, issued a survey earlier this month that paints a stark contrast to the picture of carefree college students having fun on spring break.

64.5 percent of undergraduate students who took part in the 2016 Running on Empty—Mid-term Finance Survey reported that they had exhausted their financial resources throughout their academic tenure.

51 percent of those polled said they became penniless because to unexpected expenses, not enough financial help, excessive textbook fees, too much college, and a change in their own or their parents’ financial situation (42.4 percent) (30.9 percent).

Seventy-seven percent of college seniors, compared to 69 percent of juniors, 67 percent of sophomores, and 52 percent of freshmen, said they had ran out of money while in school.

Students from Edvisors’ ScholarshipPoints.com site replied to the survey with a total of 350 responses. Experiment results may be applied to all college students, according to David Levy, an editor at Edvisors. On the basis of his more than 30 years in financial aid administration at prestigious universities including Caltech, Scripps College, and Occidental College in California, he makes this claim.

Freshmen generally underestimate the cost of textbooks, supplies, transportation, and other unexpected expenses, according to Levy. There are a number of them, including student health center fees, student health insurance, cell phones, and dining out. ‘ Expenses related to interviews, graduate school entrance tests, and professional licenses might be incurred by upperclassmen.

There were no gender or degree type variables included in the 2016 Running on Empty poll but Levy wants to delve into these demographics in future investigations. “If you attend a private non-profit institution, “living expenses” make up two-thirds of the cost, according to the author.

Levy recommends that students pay big recurrent expenses at the beginning of a term and establish automatic debit payment for ongoing bills to prevent running out of money mid-semester. Set away a little amount of money as well “In the event of an emergency, “emergency fund,” he says.

According to him, many students are eligible for mid-year scholarships, which he believes are rather popular. Many colleges have websites or offices where students can get information about financial aid or the academic department where they plan to pursue their chosen field of study.

Students should inquire about available emergency loan and grant programs with their financial aid office. Most institutions, he claims, provide emergency loans and grants “Students who get financial aid are not the only recipients of these funds. It is possible to use the money to cover car repairs, medical costs, or any other unexpected bills that arise. However, students should be prepared to submit a bill if they receive a grant.

One option to save money on rent is to share an apartment with another person. Other money-saving tips from Levy include buying and selling used textbooks, limiting vacations home, taking the greatest amount of semester credits possible, and limiting food spending.

“According to Levy, college students who buy a $10 pizza every week spend $2,000 during their time in school. In addition, he estimates that repaying the debt will cost $4,000 because every dollar borrowed entails $2 in repayments.

Consider unconventional scholarships, as well, says Levy. He has seen Tylenol advertising scholarships in his Sunday newspaper’s coupon section. Six-to-12-year-olds who came up with inventive peanut butter sandwich ideas won $25,000 in scholarships from the Jif Most Creative Sandwich contest.

What is the average student loan debt in 2021?

According to Federal Reserve figures for the second quarter of 2021, borrowers in the United States owe $1.73 trillion in total student loans.

As of March 2021, according to the Department of Education’s latest data, the average student loan debt in the United States stands at $37,062.

According to the Federal Student Aid data, $1.59 trillion of the overall student debt is federal loans, while $136.31 billion of the total student debt is private loans.

All other forms of debt in the United States have been overtaken by student loans, save for mortgage debt.

While mortgages are the most common kind of debt, student loans are a close second, surpassing credit card and other consumer debt in terms of their total amount. In order to earn an undergraduate or graduate degree, you may have to fork over hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Considering the ubiquity of student loan debt and the advent of student loan forgiveness programs, we’ve compiled a list of student loan debt data to assist you better understand the landscape of student loan debt.

Is college worth the debt?

The Debt Numbers for College From an overall economic point of view, it’s still a good investment to go to college. Students graduate with an average $30,000 in debt, but it doesn’t diminish the value of their four-year degree in terms of cost.

How bad is student debt?

Student loans in the United States will total $1.67 trillion by June 30, 2020, with 44.7 million borrowers. Students in the 2020 graduating class owe an average of $37,584 in student loan debt, but others owe significantly more. The average student loan debt for a medical degree, for example, can be many times as high as the national average.

It’s not surprising that some borrowers will fail on their loans with numbers like that. It’s important to note that the default rate for student loans is 11.2 percent, and it’s approaching For those who have student loans, this indicates that one out of every ten have fallen severely behind on their payments if not entirely defaulted. One out of every three is also at least late in repaying their obligation.

How can college debt be avoided?

It’s possible to apply to schools because their brochures are attractive or their quads are beautiful—and pay for it.

As an alternative, you can be more selective in your college selection. It’s my experience as a long-term employer that employers only take your college name into consideration if it’s an Ivy.

To avoid paying the exorbitant costs of attending an Ivy League university, you’ll need to get your abacus out and plan the cheapest method to get the degree you want.

Attend a Free College

Some colleges in the United States are fully free. You simply have to pay for housing and board and other living expenses; the college covers tuition and fees.

College Consensus has compiled a list of 35 colleges that do not charge students for tuition. Admission rates range from 40 percent to 7 percent, with most schools charging between $15,000 and $35,000 in tuition.

Several of these universities, like Ozarks College, require students to labor a few hours a week on campus as part of their education. Many of these institutions are devoted to a single field, such as engineering or music.

Attend a Community College First

Attending a community college can save you thousands of dollars per semester over attending a four-year university.

The classrooms at a community college are smaller than the lecture halls at a university, so you’ll have more one-on-one time with your professors.

A year or two of accumulating credits will allow you to transfer to the university where you plan to earn your degree. Employers won’t realize you “hacked” your school expenditures because your CV only shows your graduating college, not your community college.

Avoid wasting time and money by verifying that your community college credits will transfer to the university you plan to attend.

By living with your parents, you can save money on both tuition and room and board.

Attend an Online University

Despite the fact that official statistics have yet to be collected, anecdotal information suggests that during the coronavirus epidemic, online schooling became more mainstream. An online university can be a good option if you don’t mind living with your parents for a few more years.

It’s also possible to go to an online college for a year or two before transferring to a four-year university, like a modern version of the community college-to university path. Do your research beforehand by making sure the college where you plan to enroll accepts all of your online course credits.

Apply for the Honors Program

Apply to college honors programs if you have a great academic record and excellent ACT or SAT scores. The honors program at a public institution featured a discount on tuition, as well as preferential housing and course assignments for those who qualified. Some community colleges will pay all of your fees, tuition, and books for you.

Each school sets its own requirements. Additionally, they may request an interview, essay, or other form of additional work when submitting a college application. Assume that these programs will be competitive; a high GPA is not enough.

Apply to a Few Prestigious Universities Too

Although it may seem contradictory, rich donors are more likely to give to more expensive and prominent universities. Grants and scholarships are more likely to be available because of their larger endowment and more money in their bank accounts.

Scholarships aren’t guaranteed, because famous schools get a lot of applications, but you shouldn’t discount them because the base tuition is so high.

Look Abroad

A college counselor in the United States, my wife works with bright students from American schools around the world to assist them gain admission to top-tier universities in the United States and abroad.

Because of the exorbitant costs, she steers many of her brightest students away from attending institutions in the United States.

Start by looking into universities in the Netherlands, which have a high rate of return on your investment. The university system in China is excellent, and it’s a bargain compared to American tuition, but be prepared for fierce competition. There are businesses that only speak English.

Fill Out Your FAFSA as Soon as Possible

It doesn’t matter whether you think you or your parents make too much money to qualify for need-based financial aid if you complete the FAFSA (FAFSA).

Even if you haven’t settled on a college yet, you can still submit your application. In fact, filling it out in advance of making a decision will assist you compare the financial aid offered by several institutions.

The government’s Federal Student Aid website is where you submit your FAFSA application. Each year, enrollment begins at midnight on October 1 and ends at midnight on June 30.

It’s a good idea to submit yours as soon as feasible before Oct. 1. There are twice as many grant offers for students who apply within the first three months of the admissions cycle, according to College Ave.

You’ll receive a student aid report within a few days or weeks of submitting your FAFSA application (SAR). To learn whether you’re eligible for a Pell Grant or other types of federal financial aid, consult your Student Aid Report (SAR). As the school calculates, it doesn’t inform you how much aid you’re qualified for.

More money is available to a few schools than to others, but that money is typically scarce. A faster FAFSA submission means that the schools you apply to can notify you what kind of aid package you are eligible for sooner.

Your top-choice colleges may no longer be able to provide you grants and work-study support if you wait too long to apply.

Take College Courses in High School

You may be able to take a college course or two while still in high school.

At most community colleges, you don’t need a high school diploma to participate in these programs throughout the school year or during the summer break. In addition to the more traditional face-to-face classes, you can now take more of your education online. In some cases, it is a viable alternative to taking AP classes at your high school if you want to gain a head start on your college education.

A semester’s worth of general education requirements can be eliminated by completing one or two classes at a community college during two high school semesters. That might save you tens of thousands of dollars in college costs.

Negotiate Tuition

If the financial aid or scholarships you desire aren’t offered by your first choice school, contact the office of admissions to inquire about other possibilities. Describe the situation you’re in: Even though another school’s financial assistance package is better, you still want to go to theirs. To get to a decision maker, you may have to talk to numerous people in the workplace at the same time

Work-study programs, student ambassadorships, and volunteer duties are all excellent ways to get your foot in the door at colleges and universities. The only way to find out what the school wants is to ask.