Student loan debt nears $30,000, tuition hikes slow

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In Missouri, 63 percent graduated with debt averaging $24,957.

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Greg Edwards

Reporter- St. Louis Business Journal

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Sixty-nine percent of 2013 college graduates had student loans, and their average debt was $28,400, 2 percent higher than in 2012, The Institute for College Access & Success reported Thursday.

In Missouri, 63 percent graduated with debt averaging $24,957. In Illinois, 70 percent graduated with debt averaging $29,731.

New Hampshire, Delaware and Pennsylvania had the highest average debt, each more than $32,000. New Mexico had the lowest average, $18,656.

"While loans are increasingly needed to get through school, graduating with burdensome debut is not a foregone conclusion," said Lauren Asher, the institute's president. "Where you go to college matters, and the kinds of loans you have matter, too."

In a separate report Thursday, the College Board reported cost increases are slowing at four-year public colleges and universities. "The 2013-14 increase in published tuition and fees at public four-year colleges and universities is the smallest we have seen in many years," the report stated. "This does not mean that college is suddenly more affordable, but it does mean the rapid growth of recent years did not represent a 'new normal.'"

The 2013-14 increases averaged 2.9 percent, down from 4.5 percent in 2012-13 and 8.5 percent in 2011-12.

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