As the 2020 presidential elections approach, there has been a recent surge in surveys that question potential voters about mounting student debt rates, forgiveness plans and ways to make college more affordable.
Along these lines, a recent survey conducted by College Ave Student Loans asked 1,019 college students how themselves and their families are paying for college.
64 percent of respondents mentioned receiving scholarships and grants, 50 percent mentioned using parental incomes and savings, and 43 percent said they took out federal student loans to pay for their college. Another 37 percent said they used their own saving and incomes, while 12 percent referenced taking out private student loans as well.
“Our survey highlights the resourcefulness of families when it comes to paying for college,” Joe DePaulo, CEO and Co-Founder of College Ave Student Loans, said.
“College is one of the biggest investments a family can make for a child’s future, and this survey points to the fact that the majority of families really take advantage of scholarships and grants and work together to create a path forward for financial success.”
For 68 percent of students, the biggest worry surrounding college attendance is not the difficulty of the curriculum or managing the workload, but the associated costs. This concern is shared by almost 24 percent of millennial voters who consider student debt forgiveness as a top-tier policy issue, according to an Ipsos survey that was released last week.
Collective U.S. student loan debt topped $1.5 trillion in 2018, officially surpassing the debt levels of both credit cards and auto loans. It now claims second place for the highest debt category throughout the country, second only to mortgage debt.
And for minority students, the stakes are even higher. Last year, a study conducted by the University of Illinois and the University of Michigan found that black and Hispanic adults who graduate college with debt burdens have a significantly lower net worth at the age of 30 than students who don’t borrow to pay for college.
New LendEDU Report Fills Void of Unpublished CFPB Data on Student Loan Complaints