Many Baby Boomers have not saved adequately for college. Consequently, either the parents or the student may have to borrow to pay for higher education:
* According to the College Board, 72 percent of the graduates earning a bachelor’s degree at a private not-for-profit university had some student loan debt.
* For public university graduates, 62 percent had some debt.
* Among all of the graduates of the Class of ‘08 with student loans, 25 percent had over $30,500 in total debt while 10 percent owed more than $44,500.
* Those totals are for student loans; that excludes credit card balances, home equity loans, and parents’ education debt. The parents of debt-heavy bachelor’s degree recipients had an average of $30,900 in debt from federal PLUS loans.
Such debt can have serious long-term effects for parents and their children. Therefore, families should try to minimize college debt. Perhaps the best way to do so is to determine a plan during a student’s high school years, to see how much the family can afford to pay for college, and then apply to schools where total costs are likely to be in the affordable price range.
