Researchers reported that 71 percent of bachelor's degree graduates from Pennsylvania colleges and universities left with debt averaging $25,219, the seventh highest among states.
Averages were even higher for some Pennsylvania schools: $26,800 at Penn State's main campus, $29,346 at Carnegie Mellon University, $29,616 at Duquesne University and $31,149 at Point Park University. Figures for the University of Pittsburgh's main campus weren't included in the study, but graduates from its Bradford campus left with average debt of $26,463.
Because of data collection issues, the state figures may understate average debt levels by as much as $5,000 and the percentage of students with debt by as much as 12 percentage points, according to the report.
Those are big numbers given the job market. Researchers said the unemployment rate for graduates ages 20 to 24 was 10.6 percent in the third quarter, a record since the federal government began tracking that group in 2000.
Graduates' ability to repay their loans depends on whether they find a job and, if they do, how much it pays. Such practical considerations frequently take a back seat when students and parents select a school, a major and decide how they are going to pay for college. Monthly loan repayments seldom enter the picture until after graduation.
Just how manageable those payments are depends on the amount of debt, a graduate's paycheck, the types of loans and the schedule for repaying them. That's why the fictional "average" student -- someone you'll never find at the library or a frat party -- doesn't tell the whole story.
While the "average" graduate may have $23,200 in debt, the College Board reports that 34 percent of 2007-08 bachelor's degree graduates left with none. However, the testing service said 19 percent left with $30,000 or more in loans and 10 percent left with $40,000 or more.
There also can be big differences in their paychecks. The average 2009 bachelor's degree graduate received a starting salary of $48,633, down 1.2 percent from the previous year, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers.
The Bethlehem, Pa., outfit, which studies the college job market, says the average reflects the $85,417 average starting salary for petroleum engineering graduates and the $65,675 for chemical engineering grads as well as the $34,290 starting pay for sociology majors and $36,604 for English majors.
Export financial planner C. Bradley Bond estimates a graduate from a Pennsylvania college who borrowed $25,000 -- $219 less than "average" -- from federal loan programs with an average interest rate of 6.6 percent would have monthly payments of about $285 for 10 years.
For a graduate earning the "average" annual salary of $48,633, that's 7 percent of pretax pay. For someone making only $30,000 a year, it's more than 11 percent out of their weekly paycheck for a decade.
But consider the case of someone who borrowed $30,000 and used federal loans as well as private financing, which carries higher interest rates. According to the College Board's loan calculator (www.collegeboard.com), someone with $19,000 in federally subsidized Stafford Loans and $11,000 in private loans at 10 percent would have to pay $353 a month for 10 years to retire student loans. That's nearly 9 percent of pretax pay for the "average" graduate, but 14 percent for someone earning only $30,000 a year.
Student loan debt "is a very big problem for the minority of students who graduate with debt too high to manage relative to their income," said Patricia Steele, a policy analyst with the College Board. "Debt also limits one's ability to freely choose important lower paid jobs in public service fields."
Besides rent, food, clothing, entertainment and other expenses, graduates may have to borrow to buy a car. Then there's credit cards: College loan maker Sallie Mae reports the Class of 2008 graduated with average credit card debt of more than $4,100, up from $2,900 about four years ago. Nearly 20 percent of seniors carried balances exceeding $7,000.
Mr. Bond says graduates with too much student loan debt, lower paying jobs or both will have a harder time saving for a down payment on their first home and getting an early start on saving for retirement.
Those long-term goals aren't on the agenda for the rising number of college graduates struggling with debt, according to the U.S. Department of Education, which reports rising student loan default rates. Of graduates who began repaying loans from October 2006 through September 2007, 6.7 percent had defaulted on the loans by September 2008. A year earlier, the rate was 5.2 percent.
Events of the past year have given debt a bad name, but that doesn't have to be the case. Students and parents with realistic expectations of how much they can afford to pay for college, how much of that they can borrow and what the post-graduation paycheck will look like stand a better chance of using debt wisely.
