Worcester College Students Get Buried with Debt Following Graduation

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Patrick Sargent, GoLocalWorcester Contributor

Nearly 70% of 2013 college graduates in the United States left school saddled with student debt.

In Worcester, more than 80% of 2013 grads left school with an average of more than $31,000 in student debt.

According to a study by the The Institute for College Access and Success (TICAS), there are five schools in the Worcester area where students left with more than $30,000 in debt (Note: WPI and UMass Medical School did not report their average student debt and cost of attendance with TICAS).

SEE SLIDES BELOW: #25 to #1 - MA Colleges and University Graduates with Highest Average Student Debt

The five schools - Holy Cross, Nichols College, Assumption College, Becker College and Anna Maria College - are all in the top 25 in the state with graduates with highest average student debt.

Of those five schools, graduates from Anna Maria and Becker left school in 2013 with more than $40,000 in debt. Over 90% of the students at both schools left graduated with debt.

“A college degree is still the best path to a job and decent pay, and while loans are increasingly needed to get through school, graduating with burdensome debt is not a foregone conclusion,” said Lauren Asher, TICAS president. “Where you go to college matters, and the kind of loans you have matter, too. Federal student loans come with crucial consumer protections like income-based repayment plans, while private loans offer little or no relief if you hit a rough patch.”

According to TICAS’ report, graduates of the 2013 class had a 50% better chance of landing a job than individuals that chose not to go to college.

How Does Mass Compare to Rest of Country?

The average debt of a college student in Massachusetts is $28,565 and roughly 66% of the students that graduate leave school with debt. This is only a slight increase over the 2012 average debt of $28,460.

Compared to the rest of the country, that leaves Massachusetts in the middle of the pack. Vermont and Massachusetts are the only two New England states that aren’t in the top ten “High Debt States” (see below). New Hampshire has the highest student debt in the country at an average of $32,795.

“Graduates from New Hampshire colleges are almost twice as likely as Nevada graduates to leave school with student loan debt, and they owe almost twice as much as graduates from New Mexico colleges,” said Debbie Cochrane, research director at TICAS and coauthor of the report. “The importance of state policy and investment cannot be overstated when it comes to student debt levels.”

Image Courtesy of TICAS

What Can Be Done About Student Debt?

Earlier this year, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass), along with several other U.S. senators, sent a letter asking the U.S. Department of Education to implement a directive it had been given by Congress to ensure that young people struggling with federal student debt have the opportunity to build a strong future for themselves.

"It is striking that the Department still intends to generate such significant revenue from federal loan programs designed to help young people get an affordable education," the Senators wrote in the letter.

Recent estimates show that the federal government will produce $110 billion in profits from it's student loan program over the next decade. The letter also explains that the profits will be collected because the Department of Education has failed to use its existing legal authority to help struggling borrowers.

“Only with comprehensive, reliable data for every college will we see the full picture of student debt. This is too important an issue for students, schools, and policymakers to rely on voluntary, self-reported data,” said Matthew Reed, TICAS program director and coauthor of the report. “Federal collection of both federal and private loan debt at graduation is both necessary and long overdue.”

College Student Debt Among Local Colleges

Worcester College Students Get Buried with Debt Following Graduation

SEE SLIDES BELOW: #25 to #1 - MA Colleges and University Graduates with Highest Average Student Debt

How Does Mass Compare to Rest of Country?

What Can Be Done About Student Debt?

Related Slideshow: #25 to #1 - MA Colleges and Universities with Highest Average Debt of Graduates

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