Student Loan Debt: How Do Ohio Grads Fare?

CLEVELAND, OH — College graduates in 2016 in Ohio had the 16th most debt versus other states in the U.S., according to LendEDU, a student loan refinancing company. Ohio graduates had an average student debt tab of $29,579. However, things appear to have improved slightly for the Class of 2016, the average student loan debt per borrower for the class of 2016 in America is $27,975, a decrease of 1.5 percent from the class of 2015.

Otterbein University's graduates matriculated with the most student debt on average in Ohio. Students there owed $40,397 on average, an increase of 14.28 percent versus 2015. LendEdu found that 77 percent of students at the school had some form of student debt.

Private universities in the Buckeye State saw students graduating with more student debt, on average, than public universities. Of the top 15 schools with the highest per student debt average, fourteen are private colleges.

Kent State University's graduates had the most average student debt per borrower among public universities in Ohio, LendEdu found. Golden Flashes in 2016 owed $33,234 for their education and 76 percent of graduates had some form of student debt post-graduation.

Still, the overall picture for college graduates in America is grim. At the end of 2016, student loan balances stood at about $1.3 trillion, a whopping 170 percent increase from 2006. The New York Fed says that in 2016 only about 5 percent of student debt holders owed more than $100,000 in debt, however, they account for nearly 30 percent of the total outstanding balances, creating a disproportionate influence on the overall picture.

The increase in debt is due to the fact that students are taking out loans for larger amounts and the speed with which borrowers repay their debts has slowed down, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. (To stay up to date on local stories, subscribe to the Patch Cleveland newsletter. As news breaks and the story develops, you will be the first to receive updates from Patch.)

LendEdu collected its data from the annual Peterson's voluntary financial aid survey that collected responses from 1,161 institutions. The data is self reported by colleges and universities, and only data from four-year public and private nonprofit colleges and universities was analyzed. LendEdu used a weighting system to calculate the average student debt per borrower per state. LendEdu notes that the data was provided by colleges on a voluntary basis and LendEdu did not audit the accuracy of the data. (Click here to see LendEdu's full methodology.)

According to LendEdu's analysis, the states with the highest average student loan debt per borrower are:

1. Pennsylvania: $35,185
2. New Hampshire: $35,143
3. Delaware: $33,650
4. Connecticut: $32,650
5. South Dakota: $31,518
6. Minnesota: $31,342
7. Alabama: $31,257
8. Montana: $30,994
9. Massachusetts: $30,584
10. Rhode Island: $30,549

>>>Click here to see the full list.

The report noted that Utah had the lowest average student debt per borrower of $18,810. Of the 250 colleges with the highest amount of student loan debt per borrower, 80 percent of the colleges were private, while 47 percent of the 250 colleges with the lowest amount of student loan debt per borrower were public.

Photo by Bebeto Matthews/Associated Press