According to a new report, the burden of student debt shouldered by students of four-year colleges in Wisconsin is among the highest in the nation.
In the study of both public and private universities, Wisconsin ranked 16th in average student debt, $26,238, and 10th in the proportion of students graduating with outstanding loans, 67%. All three of the schools with the highest per-student averages for debt are private colleges located in southeastern Wisconsin: Milwaukee School of Engineering ($38,105), Alverno College ($35,519) and Marquette University ($35,204).
UW-Milwaukee had the highest average within the UW system, $25,484, though in-state tuition at UW-Madison is roughly $1,000 a year higher.
No school fell below $20,000. Wisconsin Lutheran College, located on the edge of the Milwaukee Regional Medical Center, had the lowest average among the four-year schools studied with $22,120.
Averages were calculated using enrollment numbers from the fall of 2010 and the pool of graduates from spring 2011.
The United Council of UW Students used the report from the Institute for College Access and Success to estimate that students who graduated from the UW System last weekend carried a total of $390 million in student debt.
After news arose in April that the UW System had hundreds of millions of dollars sitting unused in accounts located at campuses around the state, Gov. Scott Walker proposed a two-year tuition freeze, which would be the first ever imposed since the federation of public colleges was created in 1971.
in the northeast and midwest.
| New Hampshire | $32,440 |
| Pennsylvania | $29,959 |
| Minnesota | $29,793 |
| Rhode Island | $29,097 |
| Connecticut | $28,783 |
| Iowa | $28,753 |
| Ohio | $28,683 |
| Vermont | $28,273 |
| District of Columbia | $28,241 |
| New Jersey | $27,610 |
| Indiana | $27,500 |
| Michigan | $27,451 |
| North Dakota | $27,425 |
| Massachusetts | $27,181 |
| Illinois | $26,470 |
| Wisconsin | $26,238 |
(illustration via Shutterstock)
