<p>Average indebtedness at graduation - from collegeboard.com's profile of colleges. Does this mean that this is the average total cost of the degree for a student, or can someone explain it better to me?</p>
<p>IF colleges are just sticking to minimum stafford loans and most people pay out of savings and the college makes up the balance with grants then average college debt will be in the mid 20K. When it goes up , it may be because a relationship exists between a lender and school officials that cause "overmarketing" to occur. High loan balance may be because the school lacks funding from an endowment. The loan is only part of the cost of degree. I like to think of it as I(Parent) put in savings, School put in scholarship and grants, and kid pays back the loans.</p>
<p>I doubt that those statistics include the amount of credit card debt that students require to make it. I wouldn't take those figures at face value.</p>
<p>Also certain things can alter the average student loan debt for an institution eg. does it offer the Pell grant? what does tuition cost? does the area around it have a high cost of living? do they provide work study hours?</p>
<p>Another factor is whether the students maxed out their loan eligibility (Stafford, PLUS and alternatives) needlessly. My institution's average indebtedness at graduation is highly inflated because of the students enrolled in our adult, non-term program, especially our MBA students. For example, most only need to borrow about 12k per year (to cover 100% tuition and other educational expenses) but many borrow the maximum of $20,500 per year. I also have one student who, after many many phone calls trying to talk him out of it, maxed out his Pell Grant and Stafford Loans ($12,500 in loans) and then requested $10K in alternative loans (each year). He also has 100% tuition reimbursement from his employer, so he didn't need to borrow ANYTHING to meet his out of pocket expenses. After 2 years, he is already in debt $40k+ and still has abotu 1 more year left in school.</p>
<p>So, when examining the average indebtedness of any institution, one needs to see if they have any non-traditional programs that could drastically raise the stats.</p>
<p>Nikki, there should be stats just for undergrad students. I know that most universities have grad students and they are a whole different category and should not be included in the data set with undergrads for anything. The same with non traditional programs. If you look at Columbia, Johns Hopkins, Harvard, all of these schools have a separate division giving undergrad degrees that are not the same as their mainstream residential programs with different admissions stats and a whole different set of rules for financial aid. H & C do not guarantee 100% need met for their alternative schools, for example, and there are many such students who borrow. Only those who are in the mainstream undergrad programs should be in the stats so as not to confuse those numbers. How is your school portrayed in the USNews &World Report Ultimate guide in terms of financial aid figures? Do they use whole school numbers or just the mainstream Undergrad stats? I ask, because that is what many of us parents use in this area to get some idea of the financial aid policies of various schools. Note that the PLUS loans are not included as financial aid in that information. I have found some other sources that do not have as many schools included that also have this data, and it is useful in seeing the school's general policy on financial aid and what is in the package and what % get merit money.</p>