Racial Differences in Educational Debt Levels for Doctoral Students
Filed in Financial Aid, Racial Gap on January 3, 2014
According to data released by the National Science Foundation, Blacks who earned doctorates in 2012 had an average of $54,132 in debt from educational loans. Whites who earned doctorates had average educational debts of $25,992.
Blacks were more likely than Whites to have the highest levels of debt. Some 26.5 percent of Blacks who earned doctorates owed more than $90,000. Only 12.4 percent of Whites who earned doctorates in 2012 had debts of more than $90,000.
More than 42 percent of Whites awarded doctorates in 2012 earned their degrees having accumulated no educational-related debt. Whites were far more likely than Blacks to graduate debt-free. Only 20 percent of Blacks earning doctorates had accumulated no educational debt.
