College grads face heavier debt load

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Updated: December 13, 2010 11:30AM

Like any soon-to-be college graduate, Rachel Christensen isn’t quite sure what her future holds, although the Loyola University Chicago student can be sure of this - it will involve paying off about $35,000 in college debt.

“If I were going to guess, it would take at least 15 years - unless I score some fantastic job,” said Christensen, 23, who expects to graduate in May with a double bachelor’s degree in music and journalism.

When she graduates, she’ll join the ranks of four-year college grads facing an increasingly large mountain of student loan debt - as well as the double whammy of an increasing unemployment rate for grads.

Figures released Thursday by The Project on Student Debt show that four-year college grads in the U.S., on average, graduated in 2009 with $24,000 in student loan debt, a record high.

At the same time, they moved into a working world with an 8.7 percent national unemployment rate for college graduates aged 20 to 24 - the highest annual rate on record, according to the student loan project, put together by the California-based non-profit Institute for College Access & Success.

In Illinois, the average debt for college seniors graduating in 2009 was about $22,000, according to the study, which looked at students who graduate from public and private, nonprofit four-year colleges with loans.

“These are challenging times for parents and students trying to figure out how to pay for college,” said Lauren Asher, the institute’s president. “Our study shows that from state to state and from college to college, the amount of debt you can end up with varies tremendously.”

Students in Washington, D.C., and New Hampshire graduated with the highest average debt levels: $30,000 and $29,400, respectively. Students in Utah had the lowest average debt, about $13,000.

The report points out that the $24,000 average student loan debt is about 6 percent higher than in 2008, which follows a trend during the last four years.

Asher said college remains a great investment, but parents and students need to do their homework to find out which college offers the best deal. She said students should opt for federal loans over private ones because federal money typically comes with a wider variety of repayment plans as well as other consumer-protection options.

Despite the huge amount of debt she faces, Christensen, who hopes to be a music journalist, has no regrets about her choice of college.

“I really enjoyed my career at Loyola,” she said. “I couldn’t be happier with my education.”

Still, she knows she won’t be living the good life anytime soon.

“It’s definitely frustrating,” she said. “I’m from Minnesota. Most of my family is from there. My niece was just born. I would love to get back there more often (to visit) my family. ... But I’m dead broke.”

ADDING IT UP

Average debt for 2009 graduates at Illinois’ four-year public universities and some Chicago-area private schools:

Public*

Northern Illinois $24,154

SIU-Carbondale $21,359

SIU-Edwardsville $20,603

Western Illinois $20,550

Illinois State $20,105

U of I at Urbana-Champaign $19,378

U of I at Chicago $17,276

U of I at Springfield $14,717

Northeastern $10,903

Private

Loyola $35,526

Trinity Christian $33,133

Lake Forest $29,279

Olivet Nazarene $28,473

North Central $27,285

Saint Xavier $26,939

Robert Morris $26,752

Illinois Wesleyan $26,458

University of Chicago $24,238

Dominican $21,392

Concordia $21,086

Northwestern $20,802

Wheaton $20,455

Lewis $20,413

DePaul $19,072

Elmhurst $18,329

Columbia $10,563

*No data provided for Chicago State or Eastern Illinois

SOURCE: THE PROJECT ON STUDENT DEBT