With college costs soaring, unemployment among recent college graduates well above the national average and student loan rates threatening to double to 6.8%, some people are asking; ‘Is it worth it?’
According to the Institute for College Access & Success, the graduating class of 2010 owed an average of $25,250 per student. Collectively, the national student debt is topping $1 trillion for the first time — surpassing credit card and auto loan debt.
Here are the top 10 states that held the most student loan debt per graduate at the end of the 2010 school year, according to a report by the Institute for College Access and Success.
| State | Debt Owed Per College Graduate |
| New Hampshire | $31,048 |
| Maine | $29,983 |
| Iowa | $29,598 |
| Minnesota | $29,058 |
| Pennsylvania | $28,599 |
| Vermont | $28,391 |
| Ohio | $27,713 |
| Indiana | $27,001 |
| Rhode Island | $26,340 |
| New York | $26,271 |
Learn how to fill out the FAFSA in seven easy steps and feel free to use this video as a helpful companion while you work on your FAFSA.
Pell Grants are only awarded to low- and middle-income undergraduate students who have not earned a bachelor’s or professional degree. For many students, these grants are the foundation of their financial aid package, to which other forms of aid are added.
Unlike student loan, these federal funded grants are free money that do not have to be repaid; making it one of the most preferred ways to get money for college.
According to a release issued by Montgomery County Community College, the school is hosting a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) Completion Workshop on Wednesday, April 11, at noon and 1 p.m. at the Norristown Resource Center at One Montgomery Plaza in Norristown. The workshop is free to attend.
All college-bound students are invited to receive assistance in completing the FAFSA. Space is limited, so interested students should pre-register at http://www.mc3.edu/admissions/paying
High school students looking to file for the government’s Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) have been paying $79.99 to file with Student Financial Aid Services, Inc.
There’s only one problem: Student Financial Aid Services is not affiliated with FAFSA (Fafsa.gov). Its similar domain name (Fafsa.com) led some students to believe otherwise. There are many financial aid services similar to Fafsa.com. Some are cheaper, and others are more expensive, but none of them are necessary.
President Barack Obama is proposing to keep college affordable by yanking federal aid from colleges that don’t keep tuition down and provide good value.
Obama also called on Congress Tuesday to keep interest rates down on subsidized federal student loans. And he wants to make more work-study jobs available for students who are paying their own tuition.
As he has in the past, Obama asked Congress to permanently extend a tuition tax credit that pays up to $10,000 over four years.
The proposals came as part of Obama’s State of the Union address, which focused on boosting economic opportunity. Part of Obama’s argument focuses on the need to keep college within reach for middle-class families.
Rising college costs have far exceeded increases in disposable income in Virginia over the past decade, the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia reports. The cost for an in-state undergraduate student living on campus accounts for 43.7 percent of per-capita disposable income, SCHEV estimates. That key measure of affordability is up from 32.2 percent in fiscal 2002.
About 58 percent of students who graduated from Virginia’s public and nonprofit private colleges in 2010 were in debt with loan amounts that averaged $23,327, according to the Project on Student Debt of the Institute for College Access and Success.
Nationally, two-thirds of 2010 graduates had loans that averaged $25,250, up from $24,000 for the Class of 2009.
The “What’s Your Number?” petition, a campaign by the student advocacy group Virginia21, has drawn support mostly from colleges students but also parents and new graduates to call attention to the financial burden caused by tuition that has doubled over the last 10 years.
