How Crushing Is Student Loan Debt In NC: How We Rank

If your college-age kids are like many others across the country, an explosion in student debt may put some “adulting” on hold after they get their degrees. A recent report shows our state follows the national trend line, and new graduates are saddled with so much debt they may not be able to buy homes, get married or achieve other milestones. North Carolina ranks 37th when it comes to graduates with college debt, and 57 percent of 2017 graduates owed money on student loans.

Nationally, two in three college seniors who graduated from public and private nonprofit colleges in 2017 had student loan debt, according to the new report from The Institute for College Access and Success. That was a slight decrease from the year prior, but they owed a little more — an average of $28,650, compared to $28,350 in 2016.

In North Carolina, the average debt owed is just under the national average: $26,526.

“While student loans can be an excellent investment, there is a crisis among the millions of students who struggle to repay their loans, and they are disproportionately students of color or from low-income families,” James Kvaal, TICAS president, said in a statement. “We need to invest more in student aid and in colleges to reduce students’ need to borrow, and make their loans easier to repay.”

Colleges aren’t required to report their graduates’ debt loads, nor do federal data reveal the typical debt load for a bachelor’s degree. To arrive at its figures, TICAS relied on data voluntarily provided by about half of all public and nonprofit bachelor’s degree-granting four-year colleges in the country. The limitations of relying on voluntarily reported data underscore the need for federal collection of cumulative student loan data for all schools, the report’s author’s said.

In North Carolina, how much college students owe in student loans depends on where they go to college. Here are some examples:

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Average debt of graduates 2017: $22,214
• Proportion of graduates with any debt 2017: 40%
• Proportion of graduates with private loan debt 2017: 5%
• Nonfederal debt, percent of total debt of graduates 2017: 17%
• Bachelor's degree recipients 2017: 3,665
• 2016-17 undergraduate enrollment: 19,429
• 2016-17 In-state tuition and fees: $8,834
• 2016-17 Total cost of attendance: $24,898
• 2015-16 Percent Pell Grant recipients: 22%
• 2016-17 percent of institutional grants that are need-based: 93%

Duke University

• Average debt of graduates 2017: $23,819
• Proportion of graduates with any debt 2017: 33%
• Proportion of graduates with private loan debt 2017: 5%
• Nonfederal debt, percent of total debt of graduates 2017: 32%
• Bachelor's degree recipients 2017: 1,697
• 2016-17 undergraduate enrollment: 7,184
• 2016-17 In-state tuition and fees: $51,265
• 2016-17 Total cost of attendance: $69,169
• 2015-16 Percent Pell Grant recipients: 13%
• 2016-17 percent of institutional grants that are need-based: 91%

North Carolina State University

• Average debt of graduates 2017: $24,053
• Proportion of graduates with any debt 2017: 52%
• Proportion of graduates with private loan debt 2017: 7%
• Nonfederal debt, percent of total debt of graduates 2017: 12%
• Bachelor's degree recipients 2017: 3,970
• 2016-17 undergraduate enrollment: 26,961
• 2016-17 In-state tuition and fees: $8,800
• 2016-17 Total cost of attendance: $23,039
• 2015-16 Percent Pell Grant recipients: 21%
• 2016-17 percent of institutional grants that are need-based: 84%

of North Carolina.

State averages for debt at graduation ranged from a low of $18,850 (Utah) to a high of $38,500 (Connecticut), and new graduates’ likelihood of having debt varied from 38 percent (Utah) to 74 percent (New Hampshire), according to the report.

It also showed that in 18 states, average debt exceeded $30,000. High-debt states tend to be in the Northeast, and low-debt states are mainly in the West.

The 10 states with the highest average debt levels in 2017:

1. Connecticut ($38,510)
2. Pennsylvania ($36,854)
3. Rhode Island ($36,250)
4. New Hampshire ($34,415)
5. Delaware ($34,144)
6. New Jersey ($32,247)
7. Massachusetts ($32,065)
8. Alabama ($31,899)
9. Minnesota ($31,734)
10. Maine ($31,364)

The 10 states with the lowest average debt levels in 2017:

1. Utah ($18,838)
2. New Mexico ($21,237)
3. Nevada ($22,064)
4. Wyoming ($22,254)
5. California ($22,785)
6. Washington ($23,936)
7. Arizona ($23,967)
8. Florida ($24,041)
9. Hawaii ($25,125)
10. Tennessee ($25,252)

About 15 percent of the Class of 2017’s debt nationally was on non-federal loans, which have fewer consumer protections and repayment options than federal student loans and are generally more costly, according to the report.

Among the authors’ recommendations was limiting how much students need to borrow by increasing funding in federal grant programs. After receiving grants and scholarships, undergraduates at four-year colleges still had almost $11,000 in unmet need, with $6,600 still left uncovered after taking all loans into account, the report found.

Bachelor’s degree recipients are typically better positioned to pay back their loans, but some groups of graduates will struggle. For example, graduates from lower income families are five times as likely to default on their loans as their higher income peers, and 21 percent of black college graduates defaulted within 12 years of entering college, the report says.

That and other findings point to “an urgent need for federal and state policymakers to address the challenges of affordability and burdensome debt for all college students,” the report says.

Read the full report here.

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