The result is that each higher grade level is associated with a much higher level of debt. Table 4 Borrowers who utilized both subsidized and unsubsidized loan programs had higher levels of debt than other borrowers. This pattern conforms to our understanding of the unsubsidized programs as extra reservoirs of financing, particularly for independent students who lack the support of parents. Borrowers who graduated from school are more indebted than borrowers who did not graduate. Graduates might have a greater amount of debt simply because they attend school, and borrow, long enough to graduate.
Borrowers differ greatly in their indebtedness according to their last known place of residence.
Please refer to Appendix C for a map of the Texas regions. This finding generally supports the idea that greater costs would tend to apply upward pressures upon borrowing. The youngest borrowers had the least debt. As it turns out, fewer than 3 percent of the youngest group took loans as graduate students, while almost 25 percent of the two older groups borrowed as graduate-level students. Therefore, since graduate students often have much higher debt loads than lower-level students, one would expect older students to borrow more than their younger counterparts.