Graduating with Debt: How do USNWR Top 50 compare?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Accoring to the website, economicdiversity.org, the following are the amounts of debt that the average student (who takes on loans) graduates with:</p>

<p>Amount of Debt , College</p>

<p>$4,965 , Princeton
$5,156 , Caltech
$9,717 , Harvard
$12,701 , UC Davis
$12,736 , U Virginia
$13,344 , Yale
$13,587 , UC Irvine (03-04)
$14,200 , Tufts
$14,524 , W&M
$14,751 , UC Berkeley
$14,895 , Georgia Tech
$15,045 , U Florida
$15,170 , UCSD
$15,391 , Columbia
$15,413 , U Illinois
$15,758 , Stanford
$15,873 , Rice
$15,900 , U Washington
$15,940 , Brown
$15,996 , UCLA
$16,800 , U Texas
$16,932 , Johns Hopkins
$17,596 , MIT
$18,860 , Northwestern (06-07)
$18,938 , Cornell
$19,137 , Boston Coll
$19,429 , Vanderbilt
$19,892 , Brandeis
$20,282 , U Wisconsin (06-07)
$20,655 , Wake Forest
$20,927 , U Penn
$21,561 , Dartmouth
$23,499 , Duke
$23,500 , Penn State
$23,500 , Syracuse
$24,272 , Emory (06-07)
$24,533 , U Michigan (all 3 U M campuses)
$24,816 , Georgetown
$25,603 , Lehigh
$26,285 , Notre Dame
$26,500 , Carnegie Mellon
$27,235 , Rensselaer
$27,420 , USC
$27,497 , U Rochester
$28,081 , Case Western
$34,417 , NYU (06-07)
na , U Chicago
na , Wash U
na , U North Carolina
na , UC Santa Barbara
na , Tulane</p>

2

<p>Now control that for the percent of students coming from families with an annual income greater than $150k.</p>

3

<p>That income information is hard to come by, but I agree it's critical.</p>

4

<p>^ Just go by SAT score average...SATs have strong correlation to family income...;)</p>

5

<p>And then add in PARENTAL debt.</p>

6

<p>I agree, mini. In the absence of parental debt statistics these numbers are essentially meaningless.</p>

<p>The numbers pretty much reflect the maximum allowable loan amounts for a Stafford loan, which was until a just couple of months ago a total of $19000 (plus accrued interest) for a traditional student who graduates in 4 years, or $23000 if they take longer to graduate. </p>

<p>Numbers much below $19000 indicate either a less costly school, a wealthier student population or in the case of Princeton and Harvard, a different way of allocating financial assistance. Numbers above $23000 indicate longer average graduation rates and/or alternative means of financing. I'm not sure what to make of NYU's numbers.</p>

<p>Now that the Stafford yearly maximums have been adjusted upwards by $2000 per year, with a total maximum of $31000, expect every one of the above averages to move up by about $8000 in the next few years.</p>

<p>In any case, except possibly for the schools at the two extreme ends of the above list, I don't think you can make any inference about a school's generosity (which is, I assume, economicdiversity.org's intention) based on the above numbers.</p>