Top Public Colleges With Lowest Student Debt Levels

Kiplinger’s Magazine released its Best Values in Public Colleges this week, an evaluation of the top public schools with high academic quality (e.g. student-faculty ratios, admission exam scores and graduation rates), and affordability (e.g. tuition, room and board and total debt level of graduates).

I’ve organized the list by my favorite variable – graduation debt levels. Here are the top 10 value schools from the list with the lowest levels of student debt at graduation. All are less than $15,000 – less than the national average college graduation student loan level of around $24,000, according to the Project on Student Debt.

1. California State University, Long Beach
Average Debt at Graduation: $10,927

2. Towson University, Towson, MD
Average Debt at Graduation: $13,245

3. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Average Debt at Graduation: $14,262

4. The Evergreen State College, Olympia, WA
Average Debt at Graduation: $14,310

5. University of California, Berkeley
Average Debt at Graduation: $14,493

6. State University of New York, Binghamton
Average Debt at Graduation: $14,560

7. The University of North Carolina, Asheville
Average Debt at Graduation: $14,596

8. San Diego State University, San Diego
Average Debt at Graduation: $14,700

9. University of Georgia, Athens
Average Debt at Graduation: $14,766

10. New College of Florida, Sarasota
Average Debt at Graduation: $14,794

Image: m00by, via Flickr.com