Students frustrated about rising debt

Average college indebtedness at Boston University has increased by the thousands, officials said.

BU spokesman Colin Riley said students who graduated in 2011 had an average of $36,488 in debt, which marks an increase from the $31,809 of average indebtedness for 2010 graduates. The median undergraduate student loan indebtedness was $28,025.

Riley said 57 percent of graduating seniors borrowed through various loan programs.

David Janey, associate director of financial assistance, said it is important for students to avoid borrowing more money than they need to meet their expenses.

“A quality college education is still just about the best investment a person, particularly a young person, can make,” Janey said in an email interview. “So borrowing, at responsible levels, to help pay for college is in no way a negative thing to do. Over time, the benefits will far outweigh the burden.”

Despite the potential benefits, the financial burden many BU students face when taking out loans may cause them more stress. With college debt increasing, students may face even more economic concerns.

Although she will have a little more than $40,000 in debt, College of Communication sophomore Ariana Hoyos, who is from Georgia, said she has few plans to pay it off successfully after college.

“I assumed I would just get a job slowly and pay it off until I die, but I don’t know,” she said. “I knew I wanted to go to a school in the Northeast . . . so I knew it was going to be a lot more than if I just stayed in state.”

Sixty percent of the millennial generation, or those who grew up during the period of economic growth in the 1990s and graduated during the latest recession, said they feel stressed about outstanding debt, according to a March 19 PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. press release on the company’s recent study.

Hoyos said her roommate received an email from Financial Assistance over winter break, which said her aid would decrease by $15,000.

“She had two weeks to come up with the fifteen grand or she would have to drop out for the semester,” Hoyos said. “She ended up having to take out a bunch more loans. It was just a lot of stress for her, and it’s so last minute too.”

Bryan Mahony, a College of Arts and Sciences junior, said he has “too much” debt already, so much that he would rob a bank, he joked.

“I want to do Teach for America so I can get that cash money,” Mahonoy said. “[After college I’ll] do really poor people things, [not] really spend money, live in the ghetto, things like that.”

CAS senior Nicole Chabaneix said her student loan debt will be about $20,000 when she graduates, but she said she should get on top of figuring out how to pay it off.

“Little by little I’ll pay it back, and I’m sure my parents will help me,” she said. “I may move back to South America because that’s where I’m from, and maybe I’ll get a job there.”

Chabaneix said not going to graduate school for two years will curb potential student debt for her.

“I’ve been working all through college so I have money saved up so I can pay my debt, not all of it obviously, but I can already start paying back,” she said.

In addition to the student debt she will already face upon graduation, Hoyos said the rising tuition puts a toll on her and her family.

“This year, it’s another $1,000 we pay,” she said. “I guess I just assumed that even with tuition increases, the amount that I would be paying would stay the same.”