This university has the highest graduate student debt of all public U.S. institutions

Kelby Clark | Rutgers University

Rutgers University, New Jersey’s premier public university, continues to dominate top spots in several national college rankings -- it ranks 26th among the nation’s top public schools and 30th in campus ethnic diversity, among other accolades.

But the university’s most recent ranking is one that university administration and prospective students may find less favorable. Of all the public institutions in the country, Rutgers has the most graduate student debt.

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Center for American Progress

Ranked 19th on the list was Rutgers University, the only public college to appear in the top 20 alongside pricy private universities like New York University and for-profit colleges like the University of Phoenix.

Ava Lorenzo, an out-of-state graduate student at Rutgers' campus in New Brunswick, N.J., was not surprised to learn the university was the top public college in the nation in terms of graduate student debt.

She says she has met many in-state students who do not qualify for sufficient federal aid but whose parents’ income are not high enough to finance their full tuition and fees.



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“A lot of my friends’ parents who live in New Jersey make a decent salary,” Lorenzo says. “[But] this salary is not enough to fund college completely and also not enough for these students to receive wage-based grants from the federal government. Therefore, most of these kids had to take out a significant amount in loans.”

While Lorenzo funded most of her undergraduate expenses with income-based grants and scholarships, she says she is paying for her doctorate degree with loans.

She adds, “I know [the debt] is adding up, but getting a doctoral degree should mean that I will make enough to live comfortably despite having a loan bill to pay each month.”

In addition, Rutgers has one of the highest tuition rates in the nation among state colleges. And while graduate students enrolled at the university received more than $192 million in federal loans in 2013-2014 academic year, undergraduate students at Rutgers received more than $230,962,547 in federal loans that same year, according to the university’s official 2013-2014 financial aid report.

Candice Yeung, an undergraduate student at the Rutgers campus in Newark, N.J. who is considering enrolling in a graduate program in the next few years, says undergraduate debt alone can be so crippling that it becomes a major factor in the decision to pursue an advanced degree.

“Students spend four years paying or taking out loans for education and in addition to that, there are meal plans and dorm payments for those who choose to dorm at school,” she says. “Then, there are the textbooks, the supplies and the extra accessories that professors demand for a class. Even with jobs, it is hard to maintain a stable financial status in college. To be honest, I try to not think about my student loans. It makes me wonder if I’m going to graduate school or if law school is even worth it.”



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While the university offers graduate students scholarships and other financial aid resources -- including the Eagleton and Ralph Bunche fellowships -- federal student loans remain the primary source of aid, according to NJ.com.

Historically, Americans journeyed to the nation’s top public schools to pursue either an undergraduate or graduate education with an expectation of affordability due to government investment.

Elizabeth Baylor, the director of postsecondary education at Center for American Progress and author the new report, argued in a 2014 analysis that cuts in-state funding of public colleges have made a bachelor’s degree or advanced degree very unaffordable for students across the country.

“In response to the fiscal crisis, the majority of state governments charted a budgetary course that reduced direct support to public colleges and universities, which, not surprisingly, coincided with the increasing unaffordability of these institutions,” Baylor said. “To make up for the funding cuts, public colleges increased their reliance on tuition revenue, which unduly burdened low- and moderate-income families.”

Rutgers University – much like other public colleges -- has had to increase tuition in response to state disinvestment in recent years, thus forcing more students to rely more heavily on loans to finance their education.

The university’s board just approved a 2.3% tuition hike in undergraduate tuition and fees and approved similar increases of approximately 2.3% for most graduate students for the 2015-2016 academic year on Thursday.



Kelby Clark is a student at Rutgers University and a summer 2015 USA TODAY Collegiate Correspondent.

This story originally appeared on the USA TODAY College blog, a news source produced for college students by student journalists. The blog closed in September of 2017.