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USF student borrowers see slight drop in loan debt in 2018
The average student loan borrower from the Class of 2018 at University of South Florida received their diploma and left campus with $22,565 in student loan debt.
For a graduate with student loans at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg last year, the average student loan debt was $38,896, and for a graduate of University of Tampa it was $33,727.
The statistics are included in a new report from LendEDU, a website that helps consumers learn about and compare financial products.
The newly released student loan debt report includes an in-depth analysis of student loan debt at nearly 1,000 four-year public and private higher-education institutions across the United States.
Nationally, there’s $1.52 trillion in outstanding student loan debt, LendEDU said. It’s the second largest form of consumer debt, trailing only mortgages, and has become a focus for the Democratic presidential candidates, as well as for Congress, which is considering reauthorization of the Higher Education Act.
In Florida, the average debt per student borrower last year was $24,664. At $22,565, USF’s 2018 graduates with debt were slightly below the state average. USF students on average had the fourth-lowest debt among 28 Florida schools in the new report and 95th lowest in the U.S.
While national figures show total debt for student borrowers increased just under 1 percent in 2018, compared to 2017, for USF 2018 graduates, total debt dropped nearly 1.1 percent from 2017. Fifty-two percent of USF graduates in 2018 had student debt.
LendEDU earlier ranked USF No. 1 among the top 50 colleges with the best financial aid counseling programs.
“The Bull2Bull Financial Education program is perhaps the most impressive of its kind, touting several different informational opportunities like coaching sessions on money management and student loans, workshops on budgeting, and several on-campus events, one of which is specifically geared towards exit counseling,” LendEDU wrote in a 2018 report. It attributed the success of the program to its peer-to-peer formatting.
At University of Tampa, the average student loan debt per borrower for the class of 2018 was $33,727, up 2.07 percent from 2017, and 61 percent of UT graduates had student debt.
Eckerd College saw the biggest increase in student loan debt among the local schools in the report. An Eckerd student who borrowed money and graduated last year had an average student loan debt of $38,896, up 11.64 percent. Sixty-four percent of Eckerd graduates last year had student debt.
“We believe that there is no better investment than an education, as studies have shown, those with a bachelor’s degree stand to earn more over their lifetime than those without. An education is one of the few investments that appreciates over time,” said Jacob Browne, Eckerd College director of admisssion, in a statement to the St. Pete Catalyst. “We work with all of our students to ensure that they are being smart consumers and financing their educations wisely and appropriately. About 96 percent of our students received institutional aid from Eckerd College which totaled approximately $48 million in financial aid in the 2018-2019 school year. The average award was $36,000.”
The complete LendEDU report on student loan debt is here.
