For most college students, paying back student loans after graduation has become an expected part of the college experience.
But for students at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, the burden of student loans may be smaller than that of students at other UW System institutions.
According to Project on Student Debt by The Chronicle of Higher Education, the average debt that students carried from UW-La Crosse in 2007 was $12,145.
“We have great financial advisors who work closely with our students and their families,” said UW-La Crosse Chancellor Joe Gow. “It’s extremely important that we minimize debt for students so, when they graduate, they don’t have to spend a great deal of their earnings to pay back their student loans and can instead move forward with their lives.”
The average debt for graduating seniors at other four-year universities in Wisconsin is $19,241. For UW-Madison students, the average debt is $21,018, second-highest only to UW-Stout students, who graduate with $23,825 worth of debt, according to the study.
The Project on Student Debt also found that 2007 graduates had 6 percent more debt than students graduating in 2006. During the same period, starting salaries for college graduates went up 3 percent, increasing the hardship of paying back loans as graduates move forward with their lives.
To help reduce student debt, each UW System campus has a financial aid office and budget. Decisions regarding which students receive financial aid are made at the local level of each university, according to UW System spokesperson David Giroux.
At UW-Madison, over 50,000 people apply for financial aid each year, including prospective students who may not end up attending UW, according to Susan Fischer, director of financial aid. The financial aid packages offered to students consist of loans, grants, work-study options and scholarships.
“Just under 50 percent of students receive financial aid, mostly in the form of loans,” Fischer said. “As a result, many students have to find jobs on their own, since we only have 2,200 work-study jobs on campus.”
According to Jacob Stampen, professor emeritus of educational leadership and policy analysis at UW-Madison, the increasing cost of education puts the entire workforce and economic health of the country in jeopardy.
“If we make education a luxury, it will hurt the entire society,” Stampen said. “Countries that do the best are the ones that improve their human capital the most, which is hard to do if education is so expensive.”
According to Giroux, the subject of student debt is a major concern among senior leadership in the UW system, but he added he does not want students to believe that all debt is bad.
“It’s important for students to also take into account the affordability of their education over their lifetime,” Giroux said. “College graduates may have more debt, but they make much more over the course of their lifetime than those who don’t go to college.”
As a whole, Wisconsin ranked 26th for the average amount of debt students have upon graduation. The data included information from public Wisconsin institutions as well as private universities. The national average student loan debt for 2007 graduates is $20,098.
