As part of our research on student debt, we conducted an interview with Jessica Ickes, the Director of Institutional Research at Lebanon Valley College. She provided insight on student debt at LVC and nationwide.
Q:
What kind of student debt do students at LVC
generally graduate with?
A:
- 83% of the last Graduating class borrowed at LVC
- $37,865 was the average debt
- 82% of the last Graduating class borrowed with Federal Loans
- $26,105 was the average debt
- 25% of the last Graduating class borrowed with Private Loans
- $39,216 was the average debt
Q:
Would you consider the debt of college students
nationwide to be high?
A: The country was very very upset in recent years
when student loan debt surpassed credit card debt in the country. Credit card debt is terrible debt to have,
but the average student loan debt is equivalent to the average mid sized car
price. So if you finance a car for 5 years, and
you turn the car over in about 7 years compared to what you pay for an education
which will span for the rest of your life.
But, I think in perspective to where we spend our money on in this country and
how we pay for cars and other things…I guess it depends on what you value.
Q: Do you think there is a solution for college debt?
A: There are a lot of
different potential solutions…which one will work I’m not sure. Federal government
has been talking about free community college. What I worry about there
is it creates a tiered educational system, so students who can’t pay would go
to schools like a community college or state school. Students who can afford to pay would go to
more elite institutions. And what does
that do? I think we see in Europe, some of the educational systems that
provide free college and give these benefits to their citizens; but, one of the trade offs is they test kids very early and sort of track them, and
then by 7th or 8th grade you know what they are going to
be. The solution gets complicated, and we have to look at what our goals
are. Is it just to reduce debt? Is it to give students the ability to
choose?
Give us your opinions on student debt. What is the solution? How are you dealing with student debt?
College tuition has begun to be like a game. The "higher the tuition the better the school." Unfortunately this has caused schools competing with one another and raising tuition, and therefore, putting students farther in debt. Instead of raising the tuition and spending money like it grows on trees, colleges should be spending the money for the sake of student education. Getting a college education would be a lot cheaper if money was spent wisely with a shorter budget. This would force colleges to really make keen decisions about where money is spent.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment, Paul. I agree there has been a fierce competition that has started. Many people do believe that higher the sticker price, the better the school...so us students want to attend these schools that are high priced; but in the end students end up with a ton of debt. The government and institutions need to take this into consideration when creating costs and giving financial aid.
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