LendEDU Private Student Loan Debt Data Analysis 2016

In August, we released our Student Loan Debt By State By School Report. In the report we analyzed financial aid and student loan data for more than 1,300 different colleges in the United States.

Included, we calculated the average amount of student loan debt per borrower at each college and university in the country. We went on to calculate the average amount of student loan debt per borrower on a state by state basis. The report received quite a bit of positive coverage. At the end of the day, we are working to create a better view of the $1.3 trillion student loan crisis.

Since we released the huge report last month, we’ve had some time to do a little more digging. We received quite a few questions regarding our private student loan data. In our report, we listed the average amount of private student debt per borrower at each college and university in the country. Over the last week, we’ve done a little more analysis on our private student loan debt data.

Analysis of the Report

Here is some interesting new data:

Average Private Student Loan Debt per Private Borrower = $28,080

Average Private Student Loan Debt per Private Borrower (Private colleges/universities) = $34,528

Average Private Student Loan Debt per Private Borrower (Public colleges/universities) = $24,085

Note: A borrower is defined as a graduate who borrowed using private student loans. These calculations include only individuals that actually borrowed using private student loans. These calculations exclude any federal student loans used by these individuals.

It would be accurate to say…

Private schools are giving borrowers, on average, $10,443 more private student loan debt as public schools.

We all know that private schools are more expensive than public schools, duh. But we believe we are the first organization to quantify the difference in terms of student debt.

In addition, we found that on average 10% of graduates use private student loans. We thought it would be interesting to highlight which colleges are giving students the most private student loan debt at graduation.

Here are the top 25 colleges that gave students the most private student loan debt for the Class of 2015:

Note: We didn’t include colleges who had less than 10% of graduates using private student loan debt.

These calculations and rankings were created using the newest Peterson’s financial aid data. Peterson’s released the fresh data for the Class of 2015 at the start of August 2016. LendEDU is the first organization to aggregate and analyze this data for the Class of 2015. The data was reported through a voluntary survey to the colleges and universities listed in the report. For reference, the data is released on a one year delay. The Class of 2016 data will not be available until the Fall of 2017. For more information about our Data Methodology, please click here.

At LendEDU, we aim to provide data in the student loan market. Our work is focused in on three parts:

1. ​Accurate data for students and families
2. Helpful resources and tools to promote financial literacy
3. Price comparisons (aka finding students and families the lowest interest rates)

We hope that students and families use our data to make financially responsible decisions when it comes to student debt. Private student loans aren’t evil by any means. When used responsibly, private student loans are a powerful tool for students and families. For instance, when used effectively to consolidate student loans, a private loan can lead to savings numbering in the thousands by the time a loan is fully repaid. Student loan refinancing is just one example of when having the right information is paramount to success. Here at LendEDU, it is our mission to make sure that student borrowers have this information.

In full disclosure, LendEDU is paid by a number of private student loan companies for marketing services. And, LendEDU’s co-founder/CEO Nate Matherson is currently repaying about $30,000 in private student loan debt himself.