New college cost measure

Paying for College
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<p><a href="http://www.educationsector.org/sites/default/files/publications/Debt%20to%20Degree%20CYCT_RELEASE.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.educationsector.org/sites/default/files/publications/Debt%20to%20Degree%20CYCT_RELEASE.pdf&lt;/a>
This study looks at total $ borrowed by all students divided by the number of graduates. Some really cool info. Have a look at the chart on page 9 for private schools which is discussed:

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Like most such universities, Princeton charges a top-dollar sticker price: $36,640 per year. But its borrowing to credential ratio is miniscule at $2,385. Many Princeton students are very wealthy. So is the university, which has a $14.4 billion endowment. Since 2002, Princeton has had a policy of not including loans in the financial aid package it awards students who can’t afford to pay full tuition. Nineteen of the universities listed on Chart 4 have some form of this “debt pledge.” Their average ratio was $9,688. The 14 universities without the pledge, by contrast, have an average borrowing to credential ratio of $17,504.</p>

<p>The single largest ratio among elite private research universities can be found at New York University, whose $25,886 ratio of borrowing to debt exceeds that of some for-profit colleges. Graduation isn’t a problem at NYU—86 percent of students who start earn degrees there. But NYU is a relatively new arrival on the elite research university scene and does not have the kind of endowment that comes from educating the rich and powerful for decades or more. While there are
no national comparable statistics on student wealth, it’s likely that NYU students are not as well-off as those who attend competitor schools. As a result, many borrow large amounts of money to attend NYU.

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<p>Let’s stop right there…The full cost of attendance at Princeton is in the $50,000 range. That “sticker price” is tuition only.</p>

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<p>That’s true, but they do the same for all these colleges (and the sticker price plays no part in the computation). I view this as the “average” debt load per student who graduates. The usual suspects are “good” (HP, Rice, WashU…) and “bad” (NYU!!!)</p>

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<p>It’s interesting to compare numbers quoted here on CC with this model. U Rochester is often listed as quite generous, but they are near the top of the scale (i.e. large student debt). They are third after NYU and RPI. Not clear if that’s because they give lots of small awards or whether more of their students cannot pay the EFC.</p>

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<p>I wonder why these numbers are so different than what is reported as “average indebtedness at graduation” on the College Board site. For many of the private schools it appears that the debt numbers are nearly double on the College Board site vs this study. For instance, Dartmouth reports about $19K indebtedness at graduation on its College Board profile, while it shows only about 9K in this study ([College</a> Search - Dartmouth College - Cost & Financial Aid](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)).<br>
Other variances are Princeton ($5200 vs $2500), Notre Dame ($27K vs $13K), Emory($26K vs $12K). Not surprising, NYU does not report their indebtedness on its College Board profile. The study uses DOE numbers and simply divides the total amount of money borrowed by undergraduates by the total number of degrees awarded. Perhaps the DOE is only looking at federal loans while the schools report total, including private loans? thoughts?</p>