The Dirty Dozen: Colleges with High Student Debt
* Those of you who have completed third grade will likely notice that this post will not contain a dozen names; I just liked writing the Dirty Dozen.
Families who plan to spend some time this summer visiting colleges should take notice beforehand of which colleges are good financial fits. The Project on Student Debt from TICAS, The Institute for College Access and Success, publishes an annual report on student debt that includes listings of high-debt colleges. There are many such rankings available– just Google “colleges with high student debt” and you’ll get hundreds– but I like this one for a couple of reasons:
They don’t bother listing for-profit schools, so you can actually see four year, public and non-profit schools in the rankings
They include both federal and private debt
Their list isn’t foolproof, however; they’re still limited by what colleges report. In any case, here are their top debt schools. Note that the fact that these are high debt schools does not necessarily mean that your student *will* graduate with high debt should they attend one of these; there are many reasons for schools to be high-debt including student body demographics and cost of living at the college. But it does often tie to a school’s financial aid policies. So, here goes:
High-Debt Public Schools (listed alphabetically)
Alabama A&M
Albany State
Alcorn State
Coastal Carolina
Delaware State
Ferris State
Maine Maritime Academy
Massachusetts Maritime Academy
Michigan Tech
Morgan State
Penn State (multiple campuses)
Temple
Tennessee State
Texas Southern
UNH (main campus)
University of Pittsburgh (Bradford, Greensburg, Johnston & Pittsburth campuses)
Winona State
High-Debt Private Non-Profit Schools (alphabetically)
Abilene Christian
Anna Maria
Canisius College
Cedar Crest College
Curry College
Everglades University
Indiana Institute of Technology
LIU Brooklyn
MacMurray College
Marywood University
Quinnipiac University
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Ringling College of Art and Design
Sacred Heart University
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Springfield College
The College of Saint Scholastica
University of New Haven
Utica College
Wheelock College
The full report is here.
One thing to keep in mind as you visit colleges: Average student debt upon graduation is around $28,950– roughly equivalent to four years of direct student loans. If a school is graduating students with higher average debt than that, you need to know more before you consider the school. You can look up individual schools’ debt by student at the National Center for Education Statistics’ website here.
