A new report from The Project on Student Debt has some mixed news. While 2008 college grads left school with somewhat more debt than those in previous years, debt for students in the Western U.S. was generally less than that for students in the East.
ICW board member Laura Rehrmann, left, and Alicia Cottrell, a University of Puget Sound student and recipient of the ICW Board Scholarship, talk during a break in ICW's board meeting in October.
Washington state falls a bit below the middle. The average debt for graduates here was $18,987, ranking 35th highest in the country. Fifty-eight percent of students graduated with debt; that’s 27th highest in the country.
The average debt for students at Independent Colleges of Washington member institutions was a bit higher than the state average, just over $22,000. That’s a pretty small difference considering that average tuition is 4-to-5 times higher than it is at public colleges. Ninety percent of students receive some financial aid, including institutional aid which averages nearly $12,000. Coupled with state and federal grants, work study, and other scholarships, financial aid helps bring a high-quality, academically rigorous independent higher education within reach of all students, regardless of family income. You can learn more about the quality and affordability of private colleges in our annual fact book.
You can check out state-by-state data on the report, or download a PDF of the whole thing, from the Project on Student Debt Web site. There’s quite a bit of media coverage of the report, too, including the New York Times blog from yesterday and today, and CBS Moneywatch.
