Two-thirds of the national college class of 2011 finished school with loan debt averaging $26,600, up about 5 percent from the class before it, according to the latest figures calculated by the Institute for College Access and Success.
The report does not include the debt of for-profit college graduates, who typically borrow more than their public university counterparts. But there’s a bright spot; even those who graduated indebted into an economy with an 8.8 percent unemployment rate in 2011 were better off than those without a degree, the report noted. The unemployment rate for those with only a high school credential last year was 19.1 percent.
