While New Hampshire college graduates recorded the highest levels of debt in the nation last year averaging $31,048 in student loans statewide the College maintained one of the lowest state averages, with $18,712 in loans for its graduating seniors, according to a Nov. 3 report conducted by the Project on Student Debt, a division of the non-profit group Institute for College Access and Success. Director of Financial Aid Virginia Hazen said the College's loan average may be even lower than the report indicated, and questioned the reliability of the study.
"I question the accuracy of both that figure and the percentage of debt that was from federal loans," Hazen said in an email to The Dartmouth.
The report, now in its sixth year, obtained loan numbers from college guide publisher Peterson's, which collected data from the Common Data Set, a voluntary survey completed by 1,067 United States colleges, according to the report. The statistics were then adjusted to compensate for underreporting, according to Matthew Reed, the program director for the Institute for College Access and Success.
"We want to draw attention to student debt levels and its impact on students," Reed said.
Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of student scholarship websites FinAid.org and FastWeb.com, said the report is the most comprehensive study of student loan trends.
"There's no source of data on graduate debt by state that is an actual tabulation of the debt," Kantrowitz said. "This project is the best that's available."
A major cause of New Hampshire graduates' high loan levels may be the large proportion of students who attend private universities, which are often associated with higher debt, according to Reed. Other factors include student demographics, parental resources and the availability of need-based grants at both the state and college level, he said.
Of the graduates of the College's Class of 2010, 51 percent graduated with some debt, according to the report.
Hazen said the College consciously tries to ensure that tuition remains "affordable and accessible," and monitors student debt levels to ensure that students are not overburdened. The Board of Trustees approved a 5.9-percent increase in tuition, room, board and fees for the 2011-2012 academic year in March, raising the College's overall tuition to total $55,365 and making Dartmouth the second-most expensive Ivy League school.
"We watch how much you're borrowing, and if we think you're at a place where you're in danger of putting yourself into default, we bring you in," Hazen said.
A "significant amount" of scholarship funds come from Dartmouth's endowment, according to Hazen. Institutional grants help minimize the impact of state cuts on students' ability to pay tuition, Hazen said.
The high level of student debt in New Hampshire is primarily due to dwindling state support for higher education, according to Kantrowitz. The New Hampshire state legislature nearly halved funding for public higher education and eliminated general funding for student scholarships in June, he said.
"The state has to step up and stop cutting their support for higher education," Kantrowitz said. "The state has to balance its budget and the first place they cut is support of higher education, which is effectively a tax on students."
Colleges and students should expect less federal government support due to a shift in resources from the Federal Family Education Loan Program to direct lending programs, Hazen said.
"I doubt we will see the same level of preventative measures from the government," she said. "I don't think you're going to see that outreach."
Students at New England College, a private insitution in Henniker, N.H., have an average debt that is $5,000 more than the state average, according to the report. As a result of recent economic woes, "we're giving less aid to our students," Kristen Blase, director of Student Financial Services at New England College, said in an interview with The Dartmouth.
New England College has not planned any additional initiatives to decrease debt, according to Blase.
"Right now we're looking at areas in which we can be more efficient, but we don't want to sacrifice our personal service to students," Blase said.
Students can minimize their debt by saving before college, economizing while they are in school and considering their ability to pay tuition when choosing a college, according to Kantrowitz. Students should aim to graduate with debt that is lower than their prospective starting salary, Kantrowitz said.
"Students need to pay attention to debt before they incur it," he said.
Marina Shukaratov contributed to the reporting of this article.
