For the third consecutive year, LendEDU has completed their annual Student Loan Debt by School by State Report, a comprehensive analysis of student loan debt statistics for over 1,000 colleges and universities throughout the United States. In terms of individual student debt, the average borrower from the Class of 2017 graduated with $28,288, an increase from $27,975 average for the Class of 2016.
Tennessee students fared pretty well, graduating with an average of debt per borrower of $25,054, a decrease of 5.85 percent from 2016. The debt burden puts Tennessee as 10th lowest in the nation. The report also noted 56 percent of graduates in the state have some student debt. Utah came in with the lowest average debt per borrower at $18,425. Pennsylvania came in the highest at $36,193.
Among public colleges in the nation, Tennessee had four that were noted in the 250 lowest average debt per borrower: Austin Peay State University (overall rank 48), University of Tennessee Knoxville (rank 133), Tennessee Technological University (rank 137), and University of Tennessee Chattanooga (rank 144). UT Martin came in the highest among public colleges with an overall ranking of 375 an average student loan debt per borrower of $27,335. As for private colleges, five were ranked among the 250 lowest average debt per borrower: Lincoln Memorial University (#47), Tennessee Wesleyan (#57), Vanderbilt University (#204), Johnson University (#217), and King University (#219). Union University came in highest among private colleges with an overall ranking of 979 and average debt per borrower of $39,022.
