Student Loans
Student loans are a growing part of US Household debt; as of 2021, Americans hold over $1.7 trillion in student loan debt.
On this episode of Making Cents of Money, we welcome Brad Fletcher from IDFPR to talk about student loan options and important protections for consumers. Make sure to listen in!
You can register for the Get Savvy: Grow Your Green Stuff webinar, Student Loan Repayment, which occurs tomorrow, April 14th, at 12:00 PM CST, or watch the recording on our YouTube channel.
We mentioned many statistics surrounding student loans and student loan debt in this episode. For those of you curious, we’ve compiled some additional statistics with sources below.
- Over 45 million people have student loan debt with an average balance of $37,691 including both federal and private education debt (Forbes).
- The total amount of student loan debt in the US surpassed $1.7 trillion in December 2020 according to estimates from the Federal Reserve.
- Historically, anywhere between 10-11% of borrowers are 90+ days late on payments, even before the pandemic hit (NASFAA).
According to the most recent data from The Institute for College Access & Success, or TICAS, Project on Student Debt from 2019:
- 61% of bachelor degree recipients in Illinois take on student loan debt
- The average amount of debt for bachelor degree recipients in IL was $29,666, which was a bit higher than the national average of $28,950 for 2019.
The Digest of Education Statistics comparing graduate degree recipients between 1999/2000 to 2015/2016 illustrates aggregate debt between undergrad and grad education:
- The average total debt for both undergrad and graduate education for a professional degree in 2015/2016 was over $140,000.
- It was over $90,000 for doctoral degrees in research, over $53,000 for Master’s degrees, and just over $50,000 for those getting a graduate certificate after their undergraduate degree.
The Council of Graduate Schools created a tool to help graduate students gauge how much debt they’d take on depending on their intended field of study using some of the data from the Digest of Education Statistics.
According to the Federal Reserve Report on the Economic Well Being of US Households:
- As of 2019, 43 percent of those who have attended college, incurred at least some debt for their education (including those that did not finish a degree or went to technical or trade schools).
- And the average amount of student loan debt in 2019 was about $33K; the median was $17K.
However, many students and their families take out debt in other forms to fund their education, not just student loans. Student loans make up the majority of education debt, but some take on credit card debt, home equity loans, or other types of loans to fill the gap between how much aid they are provided and how much they owe.
