Report: US student loan debt now stands at $1.4 trillion

<p>New data from Bloomberg finds that student loan debt across the United States now sits at $1.4 trillion.</p>

News 12 Staff

Dec 18, 2018, 3:34 AM

Updated 2,181 days ago

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It is not getting any easier for students to pay for college.
New data from Bloomberg finds that student loan debt across the United States now sits at $1.4 trillion.
News 12 New Jersey spoke with some students at Rutgers University who say that they struggle with student loans. According to the Institute for College Access and Success, 59 percent of students at the Rutgers New Brunswick campus graduated with debt in 2017.
“I think it’s really sad and I’m not sure what we can do to combat that,” says Rutgers English major Sierra Johnson. “Our tuition is raised every year.”
Johnson says that she will graduate with several thousand dollars in debt depending how much help she gets from family.
"I will definitely be struggling that's for sure,” she says. “I don't want to move back home. I'll do my best to stay on my own.”
Some of the Rutgers students say that they are borrowing about $20,000 per year.
"I'm going for education so I anticipate having to pay it off for a long time,” says student Kate Staudt. “I won't be making that much money as a teacher."
The Department of Education reports that 2.7 million graduates nationwide owe more than $100,000.