Utah’s college student loan debt is the lowest in the country, according to a study by the Project on Student Debt.

The nonprofit group based in Berkeley, Calif., also found that states with the highest cost of living do not necessarily have the highest levels of student loan debt.

According to the project’s Web site, about two-thirds of recent graduates carry student loans; their average debt has increased more than 50 percent in the past decade, after accounting for inflation. Student loan payments can hamper a graduate’s ability to save for homes, families, businesses and retirement, the project said on its Web site.

“Student loans are here to stay, but right now there is no assurance that students can use these loans for their education without risking their financial future,” Robert Shireman, executive director of the project, said in a telephone interview.

The report, released last week, is based on data from more than 1,400 four-year colleges and universities for the Class of 2005 and is weighted by campus enrollment and the proportion of graduating seniors with debt. It found the average student loan debt nationwide ranged from a high of $22,793 for graduates in New Hampshire to a low of $11,709 in Utah.

Those weighted averages combine debt of students graduating from public and private nonprofit institutions. When separated, Utah still holds the lowest debt load in the country: $11,067 for public university graduates, vs. $23,198 in Iowa; and $13,309 for those exiting private institutions, compared to $32,504 for Arizona graduates.

None of the states where the cost of living is high, like California, New York, Hawaii and Alaska, made the top 10 for overall student debt levels. Only one, New York, made the top 20. Instead, the report found that the five states with the highest student debt were New Hampshire ($22,793), Iowa ($22,727), North Dakota ($22,682), Rhode Island ($20,798) and Pennsylvania ($20,775).

This entry was posted by Taman Siswa on Monday, September 11, 2006 at 7:33 pm and is filed under Education News, Student Loan. Tags: College, Education News, Loans, Student, Student Loan, Study, . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.