Average student debt rising

As the financial crisis exacerbates rising student debt trends, students can take advantage of readily available University resources to take control of their debt early.

The average student loan debt of graduating seniors in 2008 was $17,938, marking a $4,444 increase since 2004, said Robert Anderson, senior associate director of the Office of Student Financial Aid.

This increase parallels a national trend identified by the National Center for Education Statistics. Between 1993 and 2004, debt levels of graduating seniors with student loans increased by 58 percent after accounting for inflation.

Anderson said the current financial crisis will push education funding further down the government's priority list.

"If we do not have significant increases in government aid money, there's going to be a real need for additional loan money," he added. "We're going to see a significant increase in borrowing."

If the government and the economic crisis are partly to blame for exacerbating the trend of rising student debt, the spending habits of each individual student may not help the situation either.

"Freshmen are bombarded with tons of credit card offers," said Joe Peedikayil, senior in ACES. "For the first time people are living away from home, they're spending their money. A lot of kids don't understand that there's a difference between a credit card and a debit card."

As a peer educator at the Financial Wellness office at the ARC, Peedikayil teaches students to deal with their debt early on by learning sound credit management and budgeting skills. He is one of 10 peer educators with finance-related majors who provide free financial planning consultations on a one-on-one, confidential basis. These consultations draw from materials developed by consumer economics experts from across the country.

Richard Vogen, director of College Planning in ACES, said it is unfortunate that students are even allowed to graduate high school without a basic knowledge about different types of loans, repayment terms and which options are best for students. Vogen advised students to take an introductory consumer finance class as an elective.

"It's actually kind of interesting, and it's nothing to be afraid of," he said. "There's not that much math involved, and it's just basic things that people have to deal with."

Various classes that survey financial planning, budgeting and credit management are offered in the Agricultural and Consumer Economics college and the Finance department, some of them available in spring 2009. These classes have minimal or no prerequisites, which means advanced math skills are not necessary to do well. Talking to professors and administrators before the registration rush may help to get around any major restrictions.

Vogen said if the financial crisis prompts students to take advantage of these resources early on, they might form a new adult generation who is more financially responsible than the one whose overindulgence in credit fueled the crisis in the first place.

"The crisis will make everybody think twice," he said. "If they start to search for answers in the right places and learn how to make better decisions, so much the better in the long term."