College Indebtness
I am still paying off my college loans unfortunately. Some of my colleagues are in the same bind, but why are we so reluctant to use a good chunk of our paycheck to pay it off? Back in the day, we were fortunate to lock in our repayment rate at 5-6%. Today's graduates have managed to get theirs locked in at 1-2%.
In any case, the one thing that do remain in our minds after graduation is that five or six-figure loan to pay back. For the Class of 1995, CWRU was first with average per-student debt of $26,031. For 1996, we dropped to third with average debt at $23,756. Of course the University claims that the figures incorrectly calculates the debt load for their nursing students, and that parent loans were not counted. Nevertheless, the data is mostly accurate.
For the 2006 edition, US News has found Case Western Reserve in eighth place with average debt at $27,780. 54% of the class graduated with debt. The top school laden with debt is the University of Miami in Florida with $31,723. Carnegie Mellon came out at 32nd with $22,902. Only NYU out of the Ivy League schools is just below CWRU with $27,639.
Undergrads are fortunate though than their counterparts attending medical and dental schools. Cost of education for them are $50,044 and $60,885 respectively so debt load will be quite higher after they have completed their study and go into residence. For them, the ratio between grants and loans will flip-flop in favor of the latter.
Some may try to work a few years before starting into the medical field, others have to go right into it and graduate with a debt load of over $100,000. At what cost do students and/or families decide that certain schools are just priced way out of their range?
Case will always say that they are priced lower than the other Research I institutions, but we have to understand the financial reality of dealing with the end result.
Comments
Posted by: Linda
Posted on: December 19, 2005 09:08 AM
I guess Case doesn't give good financial aid to undergrads? I went to Northwestern for undergrad and the tuition was like $40K/year but they give pretty good need-based financial aid.