Student loan debt rises again
10/25/2010
By Credit.com Staff
College seniors who graduated in the last year owed student loan lenders, both federal and private, an average of $24,000, up 6 percent from the year before, according to CNN Money, which cited statistics from the Project on Student Debt. This was troubling because unemployment for recent college graduates climbed from 5.8 percent to 8.7 percent in between 2008 and 2009, when the latest statistics were available. Last year's figure was the highest ever observed.
With student debt rising and jobs hard to come by, it's more important than ever to shop around when deciding where to go to college," Lauren Asher, president of the Institute for College Access & Success, told the news source.
The study found that students graduating in Washington, D.C. and New Hampshire carried the most debt, with loans totaling an average of $30,033 and $29,443, respectively. Meanwhile, graduates in Utah owed the least at just $12, 860, the report said.
Often, consumers can get deferments on their federal student loans if they are having financial trouble. These debts can be pushed back for up to three years.
