College Debt: 12 Facts About Student Loan Borrowers

(MoneyWatch)  How much college debt are students accumulating in school?
A new college debt study from the College Board, which was released today, attempts to answer that question by examining student loan practices for 2007-2008 college graduates.

Here are some of the report's fascinating college debt findings:

1. Two-thirds of college students graduated with college debt.

2. Among student loan borrowers, 25% left school with at least $30,500 worth of college debt.

3. 10% of all college students borrowed $39,300 or more for their education.

4. 38% of students attending public universities graduated with no college debt.

5. 28% of students attending private, non-profit colleges graduated with no college debt.

6. Here is the ethnic breakdown of students who graduated with no student debt:

• Asian 40%,
• White 36%
• Hispanic 33%
• Black 19%

7. 52% of students with parents making more than $100,000 a year graduated with no student debt.

8. Student, attending private, non-profit colleges, borrowed an average of $16,900 in private student loans, which are the least desirable college loans.

9. Students, who attended public universities, borrowed an average $9,800 through private student loans.

10. Asian students were more likely than other students to rely on private loans.

11. Families with incomes above $100,000 were more likely to take out private college loans.

12. Students attending private, for-profit schools generated the worst debt. A whopping 53% of them graduated with college debt of $30,500 or more!

Bottom Line:

While borrowing for college can be worth the cost, what is scary for many families is how much borrowing is too much. Unfortunately, there is no one right answer to that question. I've always suggested that students will get into far less trouble if they limit their borrowing strictly to federal student loans.

Read More:

College Loans: How Much Should Parents Borrow?
College Debt: Don't Borrow More than $27,000
Stay Away From Private Student Loans
Lynn O'Shaughnessy is the author of The College Solution, an Amazon bestseller, and she also writes for TheCollegeSolutionBlog. Follow her on Twitter.

College debt image by Aditya Gaddam. CC 2.0.