How Much Debt Do Graduates of Top Colleges Have?

College is expensive, notoriously, so, and the price tag is getting higher all the time. This is a concern for many students and parents, many of whom end up taking on significant amounts of debt in order to pay these rising tuition costs. This is true for both the very top colleges, and for students attending in-state schools; it is common for all students to have some amount of debt when they graduate. 

This debt is a burden and hindrance, and many students we talk to seek to minimize the amount of student loan debt they will be saddled with. We’ve talked before about scholarships and financial aid strategies, but in this article, we’re going to cover how much debt the average student graduates with from top universities. 

These are only averages, but they show some interesting trends about how much schools cost in theory, and how much you might end up actually paying. We will analyze these trends, and how this information should impact your strategy when it comes time for you to apply to college. Let’s get started!

Average Student Debt From Top Colleges

The following table lays out the average amount of debt students have when graduating from a college, and the percent of students who graduate owing money. The average is only  from the students who owe money; those who owe nothing are not counted, as they would skew the average.

This data comes from the Common Data Set; you can learn more about what that is in our article here. 

Note that these numbers are just averages, and are not necessarily indicative of how much debt you will owe if you attend a particular college. They do allow us to pick out certain trends however, and make some broader observations about the cost of college and how much debt attendance will occur.

So What Does All This Mean?

There are a few interesting trends we can note in this data, and a few shortcomings it doesn’t quite cover; we’ll go through each of these in turn. 

First, the larger a university’s endowment, the less debt students are likely to graduate with. This is perhaps unsurprising; schools with more money in general also have more money to spend on financial aid. It is interesting to note that even among the best funded universities, some students are still graduating with loan debt; we will cover this phenomenon in more detail below. 

Next, there is something of a dichotomy among schools, either they have a small proportion of their students graduate with relatively more debt, or have a larger proportion of their students graduate with less debt. This comes down to institutional priorities for funding; some schools provide larger scholarships to a smaller number of students, while others provide a smaller amount of funding to a greater proportion of students. 

Note also that the schools on the table above tend to be exceptional; they are better funded and offer more scholarships than the average university, so graduates from these schools have less debt than the average undergraduate. This can still be a significant amount of debt, but you should look at results from any school you are considering if this is a significant concern for you. 

Finally, this table does not differentiate between in-state and out-of-state students. This is important for public schools, because out-of-state pupils are charged far more, and are more likely to graduate with a significant amount of debt from public universities. While many public universities are lower cost than their private counterparts, this is only true for in-state students, and this table may not accurately reflect the level of debt you would graduate with if you attend from out of state. 

What About Debt-Free Pledges?

A number of top colleges have pledges to limit the amount of debt that students graduate with, or otherwise state that they do not expect students to take out loans. Yale says this quite clearly on their financial aid page, as does UChicago, as does MIT. This is quite common, at least among some schools, and yet as the table above shows, some students still graduate from these schools with debt. Not many, perhaps, but still more than none. 

The reason for this is how these schools, and colleges generally, calculate financial need. Their promise is that you will graduate without loans, but based on their calculations for how much you and your family can afford to pay. Thus their estimate for how much you can afford to pay may conflict with your own opinion, and so loans may be necessary to make up the difference. 

This tends to be a significant problem for students in the upper middle class at these schools, and for middle class students more broadly at universities. These schools have more financial support for lower income students, but the higher your income, the more this dries up. This often leaves middle class students in a difficult situation, wherein they don’t qualify for financial aid from the school, and also cannot pay for tuition from their own resources. 

This gap, and the enormous costs of college in general, create a significant problem for the middle class. The table above does suggest that some colleges are better about dealing with this than others, and how much of a scholarship a particular college offers you will depend on their own aid policies. 

Final Thoughts

College is a major expense, one many students cannot hope to afford without loans. Paying these loans off is a significant issue for many students, and the burden of them causes both stress and financial setbacks going forward. The chance to go to college without loans is something many students yearn for; we hope that this article has given you a sense of which schools may best enable you to do that. 

Of course, there are many concerns students have when trying to pay for college, from figuring out often oddly worded financial aid offers to deciding which schools are most likely to offer them a scholarship. At Ivy Scholars, we have a deep understanding of financial aid strategy, and what colleges take into consideration when they make these decisions. To learn more about this, or to get advice on any other aspect of the admissions process, schedule a free consultation with us today. We have a long history of helping students with their applications, and are always happy to hear from you.