A new report from NerdWallet, a financial education website for consumers, finds that college student debt is rising at an alarming rate. In 2007, there was $516 billion in outstanding student loan debt. Today the figure is $1.2 trillon.
The student debt crisis is particularly severe for African American college students. An analysis of the student debt load for fourth-year undergraduate students found that in 1990, 69 percent of African American college students had accumulated debt. By 2012, the figure was 90 percent.
In 1990, the average debt load of African American college students of $11,900 was actually lower that the average debt load for college students generally. But by 2012, the average debt load of African American college students was $30,400, far exceeding the average debt load of college students generally.
The full report, “Student Loan Borrowing Is Skyrocketing for Black Students — Here’s Why and What to Do About It,” can be found here.
