Loan borrowing for all undergraduate students at Ohio University, including Athens and the other branch campuses, has been decreasing for the past five graduating classes.
That mirrors a trend that has been occurring nationwide, according to a report from The Christian Science Monitor. The report stated that the 2015-16 academic year proved to be a "two-decade low" for undergraduate loans.
Valerie Miller, director of Student Financial Aid and Scholarships, said 66 percent of undergraduates who graduated in 2014-15 had borrowed loans, both federal and private. That number is down 3 percent from those who graduated in 2010-11. Borrowing has remained at about 66 percent for all OU students for the past three graduating classes.
Miller also said the national percentage for those same classes dropped from 68 percent to 66 percent, with the only increase occurring for 2011-12 graduates.
She said there are many reasons why loan borrowing has decreased, including the OHIO Guarantee and the OHIO Signature Awards program.
"The economy has rebounded somewhat and greater attention is being given to student loan debt and loan counseling tools, perhaps resulting in students using more caution in borrowing decisions," Miller said in an email. "At Ohio University, we’ve implemented an online financial literacy program, GradReady, to help students create budgets and make more informed student loan decisions."
While the average number of total borrowed loans is decreasing, the cost of the OHIO Guarantee increased from the class of 2019 to the class of 2020 by $196. Tuition has also been increasing for most schools nationwide. The annual cost of tuition and fees for full-time in-state students at four-year colleges increased by about 2.4 percent from the 2015-16 academic year to the 2016-17 academic year, according to the Christian Science Monitor report. The average cost of tuition for those universities for this academic year is $9,650.
“My loans are not decreasing. They’re actually just gonna keep growing because the price of college is not going down," Cassady Gibson, a freshman studying pre-professional biological sciences, said. "And for someone who’s paying for college on their own, it’s kinda hard to (avoid) loans."
Gabrielle Nieves, a sophomore studying psychology, said she has only taken out federal loans.
"The past two years, I’ve received the same amount," Nieves said.
Mahalah Talbert, a sophomore studying history, said she was worried about the amount of loans she has to take out each year, especially because she plans to go to graduate school.
“I’ve taken out the maximum amount (of loans each year). I’m an out-of-state student," Talbert said. "It’s been all federal loans, (and) my parents have had to take out really big parent plus loans."
In addition, appropriation endowments received by OU that went toward student aid increased from about $1.97 million in 2011 to about $3.3 million in 2013, according to the Ohio University Foundation endowment reports from 2011-12 and 2012-13.
“Right now, I don’t take out any college loans. But I have plenty of friends that are complaining about how some of (their) loans are gonna increase as they go through college and how much of a burden it’s going to be,” Taylor Camelo, a freshman studying applied nutrition, said.
