The Debt Burden of Bachelor's Degree Recipients. Stats in Brief. NCES 2017-436
Author: Velez, Erin Dunlop
Date: 2017-04-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Undergraduate Students,Bachelors Degrees,Debt (Financial),Student Financial Aid,Student Loan Programs,Loan Default,Loan Repayment,College Graduates,Educational Trends,Income,Labor Market,Employment Potential,Cohort Analysis,Longitudinal Studies,Statistical Data,Research Methodology

As of May 2013, total outstanding student loan debt in the United States had reached $1.2 trillion, up from $1 trillion fewer than 18 months before. The growth in debt is due primarily to increases in both the rate of borrowing and the average amount borrowed, especially among graduates of 4-year institutions. In 1989-90, about half (51 percent) of college seniors had taken out federal student loans; 60 percent of 1999-2000 seniors had done so, as had 68 percent of 2011-12 college seniors. Adjusting for inflation to 2013-14 dollars, the average cumulative amount taken out in federal loans by borrowers in their senior year of college also increased over this time period, from $15,200 in 1989-90, to $22,100 in 1999-2000, and $26,300 in 2011-12. Despite rising student debt levels, the average increase in lifetime earnings from a bachelor's degree relative to a high school diploma still exceeds average student loan debt. Recent research has found a lifetime earnings premium for those with bachelor's degrees, relative to those with only a high school diploma, of just under 70 percent. Other work has also found a clear financial advantage to earning a bachelor's degree. Nevertheless, there is concern about such negative effects of student loan debt for both individual borrowers and the economy as a reduction of home or auto purchases, net worth, and intergenerational financial security. There is evidence that bachelor's degree recipients with high student debt are less likely than their low-debt peers to work in such sectors as government, nonprofit organizations, or education. Additionally, compared to those without student debt, graduates with debt also have lower rates of attending graduate school, owning a home, and having savings or investments. Bachelor's degree recipients who graduated in 2007-08 may experience particular difficulties in repaying student loan debt. These graduates entered the labor market just as the economy was contracting and therefore faced poor employment conditions after they had already decided to incur student debt in a prerecession economy. Building on a previous study of these graduates' debt burden 1 year after they had received their degrees, this Statistics in Brief examines their loan repayment over a longer repayment window, 4 years after graduation, almost midway through the standard 10-year loan repayment period. The report examines debt accumulated for all postsecondary education, including any debt incurred for education programs in which graduates enrolled after completing the 2007-08 bachelor's degree. Additionally, this study utilizes a recent cohort of students, providing an update to older longitudinal studies of debt burden. Since this report examines a cohort of students who received bachelor's, and in some cases graduate, degrees, these estimates should not be compared with the debt and repayment experiences of students who earned certificates or associate's degrees or did not complete a postsecondary credential. The following are appended: (1) Data Tables; and (2) Standard Error Tables.