Hoboken, NJ, Aug. 15, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- LendEDU released its third annual Student Loan Debt by School by State Report for the Class of 2017. The average borrower in the Class of 2017 from the schools analyzed graduated with $28,288, up by 1.01% from the $27,975 held by the average borrower in the Class of 2016. Furthermore, 57.96% of Class of 2017 graduates had some amount of student debt, down from 59.78% for the Class of 2016. In LendEDU’s analysis, researchers found that private institutions gave borrowers an average of $31,665 in student debt at graduation, whereas public institutions gave borrowers an average of $26,846 in student debt at graduation.
LendEDU’s Student Loan Debt by School by State Report was created using the newest Peterson’s financial aid data. Peterson’s released the new data for the Class of 2017 at the start of August 2018. LendEDU is the first organization to aggregate and analyze this data for the Class of 2017. The data was reported through a survey to the colleges and universities listed in the report. The voluntary survey received usable responses from 1,080 institutions. For reference, the data is released on a one year delay. The Class of 2018 data will not be available until the Fall of 2019.
LendEDU created this report to add transparency to the $1.5 trillion student loan crisis. LendEDU’s goal is to highlight which states and colleges are giving graduates the most and least student loan debt at graduation. In the report, LendEDU provided the following information for the 1,080 institutions:
- Average student debt per borrower
- Percentage of graduates with student debt
- Average private student debt per borrower
- Percentage of graduates with private student debt
- Overall rank in the United States (from lowest debt per borrower to highest debt per borrower)
- State rank (from lowest debt per borrower to highest debt per borrower)
- Percent change in average student debt per borrower from last year’s data
States With Lowest Student Debt 1) Utah - $18,425 2) New Mexico - $21,805 3) Nevada - $22,026 4) California - $22,383 5) Wyoming - $22,524 6) Washington - $23,359 7) Florida - $23,556 8) Arizona - $23,913 9) Hawaii - $24,955 10) Tennessee - $25,054 States With Highest Student Debt 1) Pennsylvania - $36,193 2) Rhode Island - $35,371 3) Delaware - $34,144 4) New Hampshire - $33,462 5) Alabama - $31,861 6) Connecticut - $31,643 7) New York - $31,506 8) South Dakota - $31,332 9) Massachusetts - $31,319 10) Minnesota - $31,231
On a school level, the average debt levels at graduation in 2017 ranged from a low of $5,633 per borrower to a high of $77,353 per borrower. You can see the highest and lowest student loan debt per borrower in the following categories: Overall, Public Schools, Private Schools. We analyzed all 50 states and Washington D.C. and 1,080 colleges in our full report. LendEDU licensed the data from Peterson’s for this report. For the full methodology, please see the report for a breakdown of calculations and an explanation of relevant terms.
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About LendEDU
In 2014, LendEDU launched as a marketplace for student loans and student loan refinancing. LendEDU helps graduates find the lowest student loan quotes with one application. Today, LendEDU helps consumers compare a number of personal finance products including student loans, personal loans, credit cards, and banking products. LendEDU works to create engaging resource content, industry-leading news, and tools to create transparency for consumers. LendEDU was founded by Nate Matherson and Matt Lenhard in August of 2014. LendEDU is a graduate of Y Combinator’s W16 class, the Iowa Startup Accelerator, and the Horn Program at the University of Delaware.
Michael Brown LendEDU 9084561729 brown@lendedu.com
