Student Debt and the Class of 2020. 16th Annual Report

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Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation
Joyce Foundation
Kresge Foundation
Lumina Foundation

Debt (Financial); Student Financial Aid; COVID-19; Pandemics; Annual Reports; College Graduates; Costs; Paying for College; Loan Repayment; Public Policy; Institutional Characteristics

"Student Debt and the Class of 2020" is The Institute for College Access & Success' (TICAS') sixteenth annual report on the student loan debt of recent graduates from four-year colleges, documenting changes and variation in student debt across states and colleges. State averages for debt at graduation in 2020 ranged from $18,350 (Utah) to $39,950 (New Hampshire), and new graduates' likelihood of having debt varied from 39 percent (Utah) to 73 percent (South Dakota). In 19 states, average debt was more than $30,000, and it was over $35,000 in six states. Many of the same states appear at the high and low ends of the spectrum as in previous years. High-debt states remain concentrated in the Northeast and low-debt states are mainly in the West. Available data on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on current students and borrowers suggest a cause for concern about college affordability and unaffordable debt burdens. This report includes federal policy recommendations to reduce debt burdens and manage repayment in the wake of COVID-19 and beyond. [For "Student Debt and the Class of 2019. 15th Annual Report," see ED609297.]

ERIC

2022

ED619781