The Kiplinger Monitor - student loans under the microscope - Brief Article

Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine, Oct, 2001 by Magali Rheault

COLLEGE BILLS | Student loans make the grade

70% Percentage of undergraduates at four-year institutions where tuition and fees are less than $8,000 a year.

55% Percentage of undergraduates who received some type of financial aid in the 1999-2000 academic year, versus 43% ten years earlier.

59% Average percentage of a financial-aid package derived from loans, versus 49% ten years ago.

29% Percentage of undergraduates who took out student loans, up from 19% ten years earlier.

18% Percentage of grads who repaid their undergraduate loans in full within four years of graduation.

$4,878 Average loan amount received by an undergraduate at a public, four-year institution for the 1999-2000 academic year.

$6,295 Average loan amount received by an undergraduate at a private, four-year institution.

82% Percentage of parents of high school students who think students have to borrow too much money to pay for college.

SOURCES: The College Board; National Center for Education Statistics; National Center for Public Policy in Higher Education