College graduates debt increases

CNNMoney.com has an article with a headline that is very eye catching: College grads: $24,000 in debt.

As a college student, this article is very overwhelming.

During Obama's State of the Union address I had blogged about it on The Future of Journalism and there was a part about Obama saying that he does not want students to be in debt for having an education, and he made a point to really emphasize that he wants to help make it possible for students to go to school and get an education without going in bankruptcy.

The exact part of the speech referred to above is:

"...When we renew the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, we will work with Congress to expand these reforms to all fifty states. Still, in this economy, a high school diploma no longer guarantees a good job. I urge the Senate to follow the House and pass a bill that will revitalize our community colleges, which are a career pathway to the children of so many working families. To make college more affordable, this bill will finally end the unwarranted taxpayer-subsidies that go to banks for student loans. Instead, let's take that money and give families a $10,000 tax credit for four years of college and increase Pell Grants. And let's tell another one million students that when they graduate, they will be required to pay only ten percent of their income on student loans, and all of their debt will be forgiven after twenty years – and forgiven after ten years if they choose a career in public service. Because in the United States of America, no one should go broke because they chose to go to college. And it's time for colleges and universities to get serious about cutting their own costs – because they too have a responsibility to help solve this problem..."


When seeing posts about going into debt, students are probably finding Peter Thiel's offer of $100,000 to drop out of school very tempting.

The CNN Money article says that student debt is on the rise and "fewer graduates are getting jobs to pay back what they borrowed."

To make the college student feel more overwhelmed add onto the fact that unemployment rates are high and unemployment rates for college graduates jumped from 5.8 percent in 2008 to 8.7 percent in 2009 - which is the highest annual rate on record.

There is even a new term "boomerang kids" which refers to college graduates who move back home - which according to CNN Money is 85 percent.

Students with the most debt, over $29 thousand, are from New Hampshire, and students in Ohio are said to have the lowest, under $16 thousand.

Surprisingly CNN Money says, "Schools in the lowest average debt group included California Institute of Technology, Hampton University, CUNY Hunter College and Princeton University."

By Nikky Raney
Journalist & Blogger