Students fear student loan debt after graduation

COLUMBIA— Cara Barnard will graduate without credit card debt.

She never went more than a few months without paying off her balance. Despite being responsible for her credit cards, Barnard, a 22-year-old education major, will still leave MU much like the majority of graduating students — owing thousands of dollars in student loans.

“Student loans are necessary for my survival,” Barnard said. “I can’t work a lot of hours because I have to spend a lot of my time student teaching, which I have to pay to do.”

According to the Institute for College Access and Success, 59 percent of the MU students that graduated in 2006 left college with student loan debt. The average amount of debt at MU was $18,983. Those numbers are both increases from the previous year, when only 50 percent of graduates left with debt and the average debt was $17,907.

Of the 46 states in the study, the state of Missouri ranked 27th in average debt with its graduates averaging $18,635 of debt. The District of Columbia ranked first with graduates leaving with an average of $27,757 of debt. This data accounts for both private and public colleges.

Sara Pryor, a sophomore majoring in social work and religious studies at MU, says she could not avoid debt. She does not have any credit card debt, and she does not spend her money carelessly.

“I’m very wise with my money.” Pryor said. “I don’t spend money on alcohol or any other expensive habits.”
Pryor’s parents never assisted her financially with college, so she depended on student loan money right from the start. Every semester, Pryor’s student loan debt increases, making her worry even more about her life after graduation.

For Pryor, graduation will be both good and bad. It will be good in that she will finally have her degree and can begin her career, but she is not sure that she will be able to afford her loan payments.

Possible punishments for defaulting on a loan include loss of a professional license, wage garnishment, a lawsuit and tax offset.

According to a study by the National Center for Education Statistics, 10 percent of the students in the study defaulted at least once between 1992 and 2002. The study also points out that students who take out larger loans have a much higher chance of defaulting. Twenty percent of students who took at least $15,000 or more defaulted compared to the 7 percent to 8 percent of students who defaulted when borrowing less than $10,000.

Pryor says that she is afraid that she picked a career that will make it hard to pay off her student loans.

“I am going into religious studies and social work, and how am I going to pay for it?” Pryor said. “My only choice is to make the best grades that I can and hope that I get scholarship money.”