Citation:

Wood, Sarah. “How Much Student Loan Debt Does the Average College Graduate Have?” See How Average Student Loan Debt Has Changed in 10 Years (usnews.com)

Summary:

The article  â€œHow Much Student Loan Debt Does the Average College Graduate Have?” Sarah Wood explains how student loans have increased in the past decade even though a student is pursuing the same major that a student was doing 10 years ago. The rate of inflation has increased where it is said that in a research report by USA News about 1012 colleges graduating in the class of 2022 was set to borrow at least $30,000 is borrowing about $2,200 more than students 10 years ago, showing an increased amount of 8%. There is a graph illustrated from 2008 to now showing how the average amount of borrowing in 2008 was about $20,000, whereas in 2023, that amount increased by almost $10,000. There is a contrast in the article since it’s mentioned that as well as the debt is increasing, the act of borrowing money for college is lowering. The article also mentions the factors which led to the increase of student borrowing loans, with the common majors being for research oriented programs, and if it also offers bachelors, master or doctoral degrees. There is also a section that the author puts into the text and that is to explain how debt affects those that borrow it and how most of it is in a “default” and how this negatively affects a borrower’s credit for the future. This also includes how there are statements in which people are not ready to face the moment when they are required to pay a debt, with 69% of people in a July 2023 survey. I think the main point of the article is to show the readers how much the price of student loan has increased throughout the years and which program requires the most for payments and the amount of people that are reported to not be prepared to comply with a payment at the end of their studies.

Reflection:

I agree with what the text states about the stance of student debt and the rise of inflation being a factor to an increase of payment for the future. I agree that inflation is also a factor in price increase in other systems, which goes that most of the price impact will be for those that are studying for a more long term, higher “value” degree. It makes sense that someone that is working for a doctorate degree or a bachelor’s degree such as for nursing programs, arts and science, etc would have to make a bigger payment than someone that is working for a bit less. This also applies for an associates degree in which someone stepping for medicine and arts are at the highest to have a bigger debt than degrees that follow “basic” studies. The quote from the text that describes this claim is “Borrowing is often tied to the cost of college tuition and fees, which, per U.S. News data has more than doubled over the last 20 years across ranked private and public National Universities (schools that are often research-oriented and offer bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees).” I don’t have many questions for the text as the text explains each section backed up by research from other sources such as a graph of value from US News, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, etc. Much of the questions that I would have are cleansed. To get a better understanding on the section that imply which factors play in an increase of student debt was to search up which majors is reportedly contributing the most for students to make payments in the future to the majors that will have less debt for both bachelors and associates degree. Something that I would say to the author is if she could have provided a clearer list of majors that has more debt for the future compared to the one that will have less to give the readers a more straight up sense on what majors to look out for in a long term situation. This document contributes to my research question, which is now more of a mix of “Does it affect differently for students in different majors”, and “ How much will the price due to any inflation in the future” as I now know which majors causes more for a student to pay back for student debt and with the resource of a graph that provides information of student debt from a decade ago, this help understand at what rate can the price be for years to come. This genre the author wrote is important for facts about student debt and is helpful for college students in the country to get a look on what can be an estimate on what they will pay.

Quotations: 

  • “Data reported to U.S. News by 1,012 colleges in an annual survey showed that graduates from the class of 2022 who took out student loans en route to a bachelor’s degree borrowed $29,417 on average. That’s about $2,200 more than borrowers from the class of 2012 had to shoulder, representing a roughly 8% increase in the amount students borrowed over that decade.”
  • “Borrowing is often tied to the cost of college tuition and fees, which, per U.S. News data has more than doubled over the last 20 years across ranked private and public National Universities (schools that are often research-oriented and offer bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees).”
  • “That rise in tuition and fees continued for the 2023-2024 academic year, with private National Universities increasing those costs on average by about 5% from the previous year. In-state tuition at public National Universities increased by 3%, compared with a hike of 1.5% in 2022-2023 from the prior year for public university out-of-staters.”