Connecticut college students have the 5th highest rate of debt with almost two-thirds having debt, which places them 15th in the nation.
According to the website, Connecticut by the Numbers, the top-five leading high-debt states were:
- New Hampshire ($32,440),
- Pennsylvania ($29,959),
- Minnesota ($29, 793),
- Rhode Island ($29,097) and,
- Connecticut ($28,783).
The information comes from a recent report from the Project on Student Debt at The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS). The loan burden of Connecticut college students, on average, exceeded the national average. Utah and Hawaii had the lowest and second lowest average debt at $17,250 and $17,450.
The story adds, “In looking at the institutions specifically, the only Connecticut higher education institution to reach the top 20 High-Student Debt Public Colleges was the University of New Haven. Among the top 20 “low-debt” institutions was Yale University.”
The report’s findings focus solely on public and private nonprofit four-year colleges, because so few for-profit colleges chose to report the necessary data. However, federal survey data show that nationwide, graduates of for-profit four-year colleges are much more likely to borrow federal and private student loans, and they borrow significantly more than their counterparts at other types of colleges.