Did You Know?
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According to the Project on Student Debt, the average student loan debt increased by 8 percent from 2005 to 2006. For a student who graduated in 2006, that equated to roughly $21,000 of student loan debt upon graduation. Graduates from schools in Washington, D.C. faced the highest average debt with nearly $28,000 owed upon graduation. On the opposite end of the spectrum, students who graduated from institutions in Hawaii accumulated the lowest average debt at less than $12,000. While there are no concrete reasons for the disparity between those figures, the latter might be due to the high amount of in-state students who attend schools in Hawaii, as tuition for in-state students is often far less than that for out-of-state. Since Hawaii is so far away from the mainland United States, more students are inclined to stay in-state as they further their education beyond secondary school. Also of note is the disproportionate number of New England states on the highest average debt list (New Hampshire, Vermont and Connecticut follow D.C. on the highest average debt list). That is no doubt due to the region's higher proportion of private schools, where tuition is typically higher than in-state schools. Whereas the number of private schools nationally is 66 percent, that figure rises considerably to 81 percent in New England.