Thousands of University of Georgia students are joining the nearly 16 million estimated by the US census heading back to class today and in the next few weeks. For many of those students, student loans are a fact of life. Georgia is among the worst states when it comes to student debt. The personal finance website WalletHub complied its list of 2017’s States with the most and least student debt and while the Peach State didn’t make the top ten, it was pretty close at number 12 on the list for the most debt. Analyst Jill Gonzalez.
“When we looked at student loan debt, we analyzed all 50 states plus DC for not only student loan indebtedness, so the average student loans per student, we also looked at how many students are taking out loans; but we also looked at ways to minimize that and how effective they were from state to state,” Gonzalez said.
“So things like grants for public universities, jobs and internships while people are still in school and then un- and underemployment rates for recent college graduates.”
She says the total loan amount of about $$28,000 isn’t the most troubling aspect for the state’s students.
“What is a little bit scary is how many students are borrowing. Right now it’s around 61% of all students that had to take out some type of student loan, so more than half. That’s a lot of students around the state.”
Gonzalez says that amount poses specific problems for the state’s grads.
“The other thing that’s really scary here is that $28,000 makes up about 65% of a recent college graduate’s annual income in Georgia on average.”
That’s the third highest ratio in the nation. The numbers are from 2015 college grads.
To view the full report:
https://wallethub.com/edu/best-and-worst-states-for-student-debt/7520/
