The standard narrative around the student loan "crisis" holds that college has become unaffordable for most students without accumulating massive amounts of debt, and that the problem has gotten worse in recent years.
But new federal data released today show that the overall rate of student borrowing was lower in the 2015-16 academic year than it was four years prior -- the last time such a comprehensive study was released -- even as the average federal loan amount rose slightly among those who borrowed.
According to the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study, a quadrennial survey of undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in college in a given year, 38 percent of undergraduates took out student loans in 2015-16, down from 42 percent in 2011-12. And the proportion of students borrowing was lower for almost every institution type -- community colleges, four-year public institutions, private colleges and for-profit colleges.
Borrowing rates were also down among both full-time and part-time students.
Read more at Inside Higher Ed: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/01/30/new-us-data-show-lower-student-borrowing-after-surge-pell-spending