Study: Montana college grads averaging nearly $31,000 in debt
LendEDU, an online marketplace for student loan refinancing, recently released data on student loan debt for over 1,000 institutions. According to its statistics, Montana graduates are carrying significant debt.
The state was ranked No. 8, with the average debt per borrower at $30,994.
Based on debt compared by institution, the University of Montana ranked 120th overall and 24th among public schools, with an average debt of $38,008, up 58.85 percent from last year. The University of Montana Western was 132nd among public schools, averaging $29,779 in student debt per borrower, up 44.08 percent.
Montana State University grads averaged $28,463 in debt per borrower, a minor increase of 2.86 percent from the class of 2015. Montana State University Billings saw a drop of 0.73 percent for an average debt of $28,337.
Sixty percent of Montana State University grads, 77 percent of UM Western grads, 55 percent of MSU grads, and 65 percent of MSU Billings grads are in debt.
Montana’s private colleges had high average debt per borrower as well, over $30,000 at Carroll College, the University of Great Falls, and Rocky Mountain College. At least 66 percent of grads are in debt at each private school.
The percentage of 2016 Montana grads – from all schools – with debt was 59.78 percent, up from 59.63 percent in 2015.
However, the U.S. average student loan debt per borrower decreased 1.5 percent overall. Across all states, the class of 2016 averaged $27,975 in debt, compared to $28,400 for the class of 2015.
Of the 250 colleges with the highest amount of debt per borrower, 80 percent were private. Of the 250 colleges with the lowest debt per borrower, 47 percent were public.
With the highest average debt per borrower at $35,185, Pennsylvania was ranked No. 1 for 2016. Utah had the lowest average debt per borrower at $18,810.
The data for the report was collected from the annual Peterson’s financial aid survey. The voluntary survey received usable responses from 1,161 institutions.
For more information, visit https://lendedu.com/blog/student-loan-debt-statistics-by-school-by-state-2017 and https://lendedu.com/blog/student-loan-debt-rankings-school-level-2017/.