UW-Madison senior Tim Sorenson will graduate in May with more than a theater degree — he’ll have almost $20,000 in debt.

Most of his debt comes from loans used for tuition and housing, but Sorenson said he knows he uses his credit card too much.

“I’ll be about $17,000 in debt when I graduate,” Sorensen said. “Though most of that is student loans, I know firsthand about credit-card struggles.”

Sorenson is not alone. A growing number of students nationwide are emerging from school with mounting debt. UW has the lowest tuition of its peer schools, but students’ debt is increasing proportionally. According to the office of financial services, the average is $15,140.

The sheer number of students indulging themselves a bit too heavily in college life is growing — and they are doing so with someone else’s money. Sorensen has had to cope with significant debt for a long time.

“About a thousand dollars of my credit card debt started when I took a trip to New York for the millennium celebration that I couldn’t pay for at the time,” he said. “I tend to live at the end of my means, so the little things that have built up over time are tough.”

Chuck Ritter, a credit counselor for Madison-based Consumer Credit Counseling Services, said in the past few years, they have seen more students with large debt problems.

“I think the number of students has steadily increased over time, though not drastically,” Ritter said. “However, we have seen the amounts of debt on a student-by-student basis go up.”

Credit cards are only a piece of the problem. Many students find themselves having to cope with high-interest, short-term credit loans and large amounts of long-term student-loan debt.

Susan Fischer, associate director of student financial services, deals on a regular basis with students who have gotten themselves in over their heads.

“It always boils down to, ‘Don’t live beyond your means,'” Fischer said. “[Credit cards] are not evil — they’re good tools — but as financial-aid advisers, we’re very concerned over students borrowing from their futures.”

Hard data on credit-card debt is difficult to pinpoint, Fischer said, because most organizations do not want to violate the privacy of their clients.

The Consumer Federation of America, a national consumer-interest group, released a 1999 study performed in conjunction with several East Coast universities revealing that at some schools, average total debt is over $20,000 per graduating senior.

That number has steadily increased in just the past two years with rising college costs.

“We have seen students here for over 15 years. It certainly isn’t going away,” Fischer said. She claims UW has remained near the national mean for student-loan debt.

“The average debt of graduating seniors who took student loans for the 2000-2001 academic year was $15,140,” Fischer said. “But remember, that figure does not include other private loans or credit-card debt. I’m confident there are students at this university in much worse shape.”

CFA targets aggressive marketing practices by credit-card companies as one means by which students can become entrenched with debt. However, Ritter sees the burden falling squarely on the shoulders of the students themselves.

“The debt is not the problem; it’s the spending,” Ritter said. “Put simply, if you can manage your money better, you can get rid of the debt.”

Ritter’s office also sees students on a regular basis who need assistance in finding ways out of a quagmire. He said the most frequent issue he addresses with student clients is frivolous spending.

“It’s usually entertainment. Clothes and entertainment,” Ritter said. “Students are making payments on credit cards, and most of it ends up being interest payments. They come to us and say, ‘I’m sending money and not seeing any progress.'”

Students who find they cannot handle their current situation should not be intimidated by asking for help.

“We usually send [clients] forms to fill out so we know about their finances . . . things like income, normal payments, list of debts. Then we will sit down and try to work with spending.”

Ritter said he sees the problem as largely one of lack of total understanding about what it really means each time someone hands over a piece of magic plastic.

“I think it’s a combination of not having a lot of money on hand. It is easy to forget that you’ve got to pay it all back, with interest,” he said.

Sorensen found some creative solutions to the fix he is in.

“Last year I sold my body to a scientific experiment that brought in $1,500. That might not be an option for everybody, but I would recommend it. I didn’t have any reactions,” he said.

Despite his situation, Sorensen is optimistic for his future and offers advice to any students struggling to make good financial decisions.
“If you get the chance to do something you can never do again, or you just need to pay for school essentials, then don’t worry as much about the debt,” he said. “But if you’re going to whittle away money on small things that you just want, you’re going to find trouble.”