In 2024, the average student loan debt of graduates of Northwestern University, ranked as the 6th best college in the United States, amounted to 36,425 U.S. dollars. For students at Princeton University, classified as the best U.S. college in that year, they left college with student loan debt totaling 17,494 U.S. dollars on average.

For those graduating college in the United States in 2020, five-figure debt was the norm across all states. Students in New Hampshire had the highest debt levels in the country, at 39,928 U.S. dollars on average. The lowest average amount of debt that students had was in the state of Utah at 18,344 U.S. dollars.

As of Q4 2024, Americans aged 50 to 61 years had the highest average student loan debt balance among all age groups, averaging 46,790.32 U.S. dollars of student debt per borrower. In comparison, Americans who were 24 years and younger had an average student debt balance of 14,161.76 U.S. dollars.

In 2024, the generation Z in the United States had an average of roughly 22,950 U.S. dollars in student loan debt. By contrast, Generation X had the highest student loan debt, amounting to approximately 44,240 U.S. dollars. The value of outstanding student loans has been consistently rising over the past few decades.

The average amount of debt for university graduates from the class of 2023 in the United States was 29,374 U.S. dollars, an increase from the 21,211 U.S. dollars of debt that graduates from the class of 2008 had on average.

In the academic year 2022/23, the average student loan debt for a four-year bachelor's degree from a public college in the United States was 29,300 U.S. dollars. In comparison, student loan debt from a private for-profit college averaged almost 34,000 U.S. dollars.

As of April 2023, federal student loan forgiveness programs forgave an average amount of around 21,347 U.S. dollars to eligible borrowers in the United States. In comparison, the average amount of student debt forgiven by the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program was 63,826 U.S. dollars per borrower. Public Service Loan Forgiveness grants federal loan forgiveness to borrowers who have been working for a qualifying public service employer full-time for 10 years and have made 120 monthly payments while working for that employer.

In 2020, Black graduates still owed 105 percent of their original student loan debt on average after four years of completing a bachelors degree, the only racial/ethnic group to owe an average amount that was greater than what they originally borrowed. In comparison, White bachelor's completers owed an average amount of 73 percent of what they originally borrowed in student loans.

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, starting on March 13, 2020, the U.S. federal government paused payments on federal student loans, moving billions of dollars of student debt into forbearance. Federal student loans are in forbearance, meaning that no payments need to be made, and the interest rate has been set to zero percent until September 30, 2021. However, despite these measures, student debt increased in all states. The amount of student debt increased by 14 percent in Alaska between 2019 and 2020, the most out of any state.

In 2022, students who graduated from Cornell University had an average student debt of 28,408 U.S. dollars, making them the most indebted class in the Ivy League. This is compared to Princeton University, where the average student debt was 12,500 U.S. dollars.

According to a 2023 survey, 26 percent of Gen Z respondents said that they expect that it will take them between 7 to 10 years to repay their student loans in the United States. A further 21 percent said that they expect it will take them between 4 to 6 years.

According to a survey conducted in 2022, all surveyed adults with student loan debt who had stopped out of college in the United States said that they would need at least 70 percent of their loan forgiven to reenroll in college on average. In comparison, White adults and adults who had stopped out of a bachelor's degree program said that they would need at least 74 percent of their loan forgiven to reenroll on average.

In the academic year of 2023/2024, the average PLUS Loan amount borrowed by graduate students amounted to 32,160 U.S. dollars. This amount was much lower for Subsidized and Unsubsidized loans, amounting to 19,520 U.S. dollars on average.

In the academic year of 2021/22, students who took out student loans for private, nonprofit four-year colleges had an average of 33,600 U.S. dollars worth of debt upon completion of their degree. The per borrower category shows the average amount of debt amongst bachelor's degree recipients who had taken student loans.

In 2020, Black graduates took on the most student loan debt in the United States, borrowing an average of 58,400 U.S. dollars after four years of completing a bachelor's degree. In comparison, Hispanic graduates borrowed an average of 41,700 U.S. dollars after four years of completing a bachelor's degree.

In 2023, 968 billion U.S. dollars worth of student loans were in forebearance in the United States. This is due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, where the government paused repayment of student loans and froze the accumulation of interest. This is compared to 112 billion U.S. dollars worth of student loans that were in default. As of the fourth quarter of 2022, outstanding student loan debt in the U.S. was valued at approximately 1.76 trillion U.S. dollars.

On average across all public institutions, tuition costs were approximately 7,998 U.S. dollars in the academic year of 2022/2023 in the United States. The average student loan amount granted for public institutions was 7,023 U.S. dollars.

According to a survey conducted in 2022, 28 percent of adults said that vocational training or other professional certification programs were definitely worth the price, more than other higher education institutions. Undergraduate education at private universities, for-profit, was perceived by adults as the least likely to be worth the price out of the other types. The student debt crisis In the United States, the amount of outstanding student loan debt has skyrocketed in the last few years, ultimately outpacing all other forms of household debt. As of the first quarter of 2024, Americans owed over 1.75 trillion U.S. dollars in student loans, likely influenced by increasing college tuition prices at a time of rising living costs and little wage growth. By the 2020/21 academic year, the average cost of attending a four-year postsecondary institution in the U.S. reached over 31,000 U.S. dollars, a price which may triple for Americans attending private and non-profit schools. In that same year, the average student debt for a bachelor's degree in totaled almost 35,000 U.S. dollars, depicting an increase in the amount of Americans taking on larger debts to attend higher education - an agreement which ultimately leads to an even greater outstanding balance from accrued interest. Despite a three-and-a-half-year pause on monthly student loan payments during the COVID-19 pandemic which aimed to alleviate the economic burden faced by over 45 million borrowers, most Americans still struggle to afford these payments. Cutting out college costs As the cost of college - and the resulting student debt - remains on the rise in the U.S., more and more university graduates have been found to be struggling financially, often having difficulty affording bills and other living expenses. Such financial hardships have also caused significant disruption to the lives of younger Americans, with a 2022 survey showing that around a quarter of Gen Z were unable to save for retirement or emergencies and had to delay homeownership and having children due to their student debt. Consequently, debates have arisen over whether the benefits of higher education still exceed the costs in the U.S., with many beginning to doubt that getting a college degree is worth the financial risk. While tuition costs remain at an all-time high, it is probable that financing a college degree may be detrimental for those Americans who have fewer resources and are unable to fund higher education without going into a significant amount of debt.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association, or NCAA, is an American sports association that organizes different sports programs for many schools and universities in United States. Its headquarters are located in Indianapolis, Indiana. The NCAA is the largest university sports organization in the world and, due to the great popularity of university sports with fans in the United States, it occupies a prominent place in the American sports scene. Some of the top performing athletes at high school level are often awarded college scholarships that cover all, or part, of their college tuition fees. During a November 2019 survey, 41 percent of NCAA student-athletes in the United States stated that they left college with no student debt.

In the academic year 2023-24, the average borrowing for college among students in the form of federal student loans amounted to 7,340 U.S. dollars. This is a slight increase from the previous year, when student borrowing amounted to 7,253 U.S. dollars on average.