For every degree awarded at the University of Colorado’s Boulder campus, students accumulated $16,070 worth of federal loan debt — ranking the flagship school as one of the best in the state for its “debt-to-degree” ratio, according to a new report.
CU’s ratio also was slightly below the national average for four-year public universities, but the report — which used data mined from the U.S. Department of Education — shows that degrees have had a rapidly growing amount of debt attached to them over the past few years.
The authors took the total amount of federal money borrowed by undergraduates and divided that sum by the number of degrees awarded.
The analysis averaged three years’ worth of data. At CU’s Boulder campus, the debt-to-degree ratio grew from $15,004 in 2006-07 to $18,822 in 2008-09, and the average over the three years was $16,070. The national average for public, four-year schools was $16,247.
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