Minnesota's college graduates have 4th-largest student loan debt
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| That's what 71 percent of the Minnesotan class of 2010 needs to know. |
The figures show the Minnesota class of 2010 is the fourth most in debt in the country, emerging from the college years with an average of $29,058 worth of loans to repay.
The report also fingered a couple of local institutions with a particularly bad records of sending students out the door with some of the nation's heftiest debt burdens.
The data comes from self-reported figures collected from the colleges by U.S. News & World Report, Peterson's and the College Board. The report, compiled by the Project on Student Debt, does not include figures from for-profit schools, since they're under no obligation to report their numbers.
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| Hamline professor David Davies is all too familiar with the problem. |
Two local institutions also made the survey's "high debt colleges" list. Both the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and the College of Saint Scholastica were called out in a list of nonprofit universities whose students have average debt between $40,400 and $55,250. The University of Minnesota-Duluth was cited as a public college with average debt between $29,800 and $45,350.
According to figures on the website CollegeInsight, student debt has skyrocketed in the state just within the last ten years. In 2000-01, just about as many students were in debt -- an estimated 69 percent -- but the average amount was only $15,817. Not that 15 grand is a tuppence either.
All this as the economy continues to falter, jobs are scarce, and more graduates than ever are having a terrible time putting a dent in their debt.
Hold on to your mortarboards, kids. It's going to be a bumpy ride.
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