The Northeastern United States is the oldest and most historic region in the country. The region was inhabited by numerous Native American tribes prior to European colonists’ establishment of a large, settling population in the 17th century.
Today, the Northeastern U.S. is considered the most economically developed and most densely populated region in the nation. 85 percent of this region’s residents live in urban areas. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Northeast is also the most culturally diverse region in the country.
The Northeast region includes nine states: Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Jersey, New York, and Maine. Located throughout these states are some of the nation’s largest cities, such as New York City, Philadelphia, Boston, and Pittsburgh.
Most notably, the New England area is home to some of the oldest and most prestigious learning institutions in the country. Understandably, these schools are also among the most expensive. Seven of the nine Ivy League universities were founded before the Revolutionary War, making them rich in both history and financial endowments. For example, Harvard’s endowment fund is valued at $37.6 billion, making it the largest academic endowment in the world.
The Northeast region encompasses a vast array of public and private institutions of higher learning. The cost of tuition for these schools varies immensely.
Given this reality, LendEDU decided to analyze student loan debt statistics for colleges and universities throughout the Northeast region. With this data, we were able to compile a list that recognizes the 75 public and private higher education institutions that recorded the lowest average student loan debt per borrower figures in the Northeast region.
Top 75 Small Colleges With the Least Debt Per Borrower in the Northeast
Methodology
LendEDU’s Colleges with the Least Average Debt Per Borrower in the Northeast report was created using licensed data from Peterson’s that reflects the Class of 2016. For reference, the data is released on a one-year delay. The Class of 2017 data will not be available until the Fall of 2018.
The average debt per graduate was calculated by compiling the total debt at each university, divided by the number of bachelor degree recipients at each particular university. The average amount of student loan debt per graduate was then weighted by the number of graduates who had student debt to find the average debt per student loan borrower.
The data was provided on a voluntary basis at the college level by college officials. LendEDU did not audit the accuracy of the college level data.
In order to analyze only institutions in the Northeast region, the universities and colleges included in the study were limited to only those that have physical campuses in any of the following nine states: Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Jersey, New York, or Maine. We then ranked the eligible colleges in order from least to greatest based on the average student loan debt per borrower.
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