Cumulative Debt: Attainment by Debt Level | Trends in Higher Education


	Average Undergraduate Debt, Graduate Debt, and Total Debt for Graduate Degree Recipients, 2007-08 Cumulative Debt Among 2009 Bachelor’s Degree Completers, by Sector Cumulative Debt Among 2009 Bachelor’s Degree Non-Completers, by Sector Cumulative Debt: Sector of Bachelor’s Degree Recipients by Debt Level Cumulative Debt: Students Who Left without Completing a Degree by Sector and Length of Enrollment Distribution of Graduate School Debt Levels for Graduate Degree Recipients, 2007-08 Distribution of Total Undergraduate Debt by Sector and Type of Degree or Certificate, 2007-08 Distribution of Undergraduate Student Borrowing from Federal and Nonfederal Sources, 2007-08

Only 2% of students who first enrolled at a postsecondary institution in 2003-04 had borrowed more than $50,000 by 2009. Over 40% did not borrow and another 25% borrowed $10,000 or less.

Figure 11A: Educational Attainment by 2009 of Students First Enrolling in 2003-04, by Total Amount Borrowed (and Overall Percentage of Students in Debt Category)

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Cumulative Debt: Attainment by Debt Level

Notes & Sources

NOTE: Percentages in the parentheses on the vertical axis correspond to percentage of all students with specified level of debt.

SOURCES: Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS), 2009; calculations by the authors.

Key Points

Among students who either did not borrow or borrowed $10,000 or less, 43% had left college with no credential by 2009, while only 5% of those with more than $75,000 in debt were in this situation.
Eighty-five percent of those with debt higher than $75,000 and 65% of those with debt between $50,000 and $75,000 had earned bachelor's degrees by 2009.