Student loan debt ñ- scary stats

The Institute for College Access & Success released a report Nov. 13 showing that student loan debt continued to increase for those graduating with a bachelorís degree in 2013.The report indicated the following:

• In 2013, seven out of 10 graduating seniors from public and private nonprofit colleges left with student loans.
• At the state level, the average student loan debt at graduation ranges from $18,656 to $32,795.
• Almost all of the highest debt states are in the Northeast and Midwest, while the lowest debt states are in the West and South.
• In Colorado, the average student loan debt for graduates in 2012 was $24,540.

The ICAS also released a report Sept. 24 showing that despite lower interest rates, more than 650,000 people defaulted on their federal student loans in 2013. According to the report, it takes at least nine months of nonpayment to default on a federal student loan. The report also showed:

• Almost half of the students who defaulted on their loans attended for-profit colleges, even though those colleges only account for 12 percent of total student enrollment nationwide.
• Across all types of colleges (private nonprofit, public four-year, public two-year, and for-profit), 13.7 percent of borrowers defaulted within three years of entering their repayment term.
• As of Sept. 24, 2014, 21 colleges are at risk of losing their eligibility for federal aid because of a high default rate on loans theyíve provided. Twenty of those schools are for-profit schools.
• The likelihood that a student will default on their loan at a for-profit college is more than three times higher than a student attending a four-year public or nonprofit college. That likelihood is almost four times greater than a student attending a community college.

The National Center for Education Statistics released a report in April 2013, which stated, ìWhile student loans improve access to postsecondary education, repaying them has become increasingly difficult for students who are unemployed, underemployed, or who earn a limited income; furthermore, these circumstances are more common among students who do not complete a degree than among those who do.îThe report indicated the following statistics for 2009 for those who didnít complete a degree within six years of first enrolling in college:

• Among those who started at for-profit institutions, 31 percent had accumulated federal loans totaling 100 percent or more of their annual income. That number was 21 percent or lower for the other three types of colleges.
• The percentage of those whose cumulative federal debt was equal to or greater than their annual income rose from 13 percent in 2001 to 31 percent in 2009.