University students graduated, on average, with $5,955 in debt, according to “Student Debt and the Class of 2008,” a report released by the Project on Student Debt. By contrast, the national and New Jersey averages for student debt, respectively, were $23,200 and $20,169. Students at Georgian Court University, a private university in east central New Jersey, graduated with the most debt out of all New Jersey college students, at $33,620.
New Jersey is currently ranked 29th among states in terms of how much debt its students graduate with. New Jersey is also currently ranked 13th in the proportion of students (66 percent) who graduate from college with debt. (Four states — Pennsylvania, Minnesota, West Virginia and South Dakota — saw over 70 percent of students graduating with debt.)
The fact that few Princeton students graduate in debt is due to the University’s need-based financial aid program, which eliminated its student loan program eight years ago, Director of Undergraduate Financial Aid Robin Moscato said in an interview.
“We led the way on this trend in 2001. We were the first school to do that,” Moscato said. “As a result, Princeton students [graduate] with little or no debt.”
Students who do graduate with debt, Moscato explained, do so by choice, by taking out loans from the University to cover additional expenses. Some students buy laptops through the Student Computer Initiative, while others take out loans through the University instead of taking work-study jobs.
University Vice President and Secretary Bob Durkee ’69 told The Daily Princetonian for Monday’s article on the financial aspects of the second Committee on Background and Opportunity survey, though, that students may also take out loans to cover eating club costs. Durkee noted that the University expects students to take out loans to cover the social fees not accounted for in the board allowances in financial aid packages, which were extended in 2007 to finance the average cost of an eating club.
The report from the Project on Student Debt also notes that the figures it presents are slightly conservative, given that colleges and universities self-reported the data it used.
In addition, the report warned against the risk associated with private, non-federal loans that may compose student debt. These loans typically lack the various consumer protections and payment options offered by federal loans.
Princeton’s financial aid program encourages students to avoid commercial loans, though. According to the financial aid office’s website, private loans “should be viewed as a last resort after all other student and parent borrowing options have been considered.” And if a student begins to apply for a private loan, the financial aid office contacts the student to review alternative options.
Given this emphasis on preventing students from taking out loans, Moscato said she was “absolutely not” surprised to learn of Princeton’s comparatively low average student debt.
“That was our intention in 2001,” she said, “and we’ve been very, very successful with it. It’s been a much admired and emulated financial aid model.”
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