Top 10 Illinois Colleges That Leave Grads With the Most Student Loans

As high school seniors prepare to head off to college, student loans might be on their minds — and some Illinois colleges graduate students with more debt than others.

The graduating class of 2015 was the most indebted class ever in the U.S., with an average of more than $35,000 in student loans. Meanwhile, 43 percent of Americans with federal student loans aren’t making payments, and plenty of recent grads don’t know how long it will take before they can pay them off.

But going to college is still a good investment, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 2015, Americans with a bachelor’s degree earned more money and were less likely to be unemployed than those with an associate’s degree or high school diploma.

PayScale’s 2016 College Return on Investment Report included thousands of schools across the country and what return on their investment students can expect when they attend, including data on the average loan amount students borrow over four years.

Here are Illinois schools with the highest average loan amounts. But keep in mind, just because student loans were higher doesn’t mean graduates didn’t get any bang for their buck — in fact, only one school netted a negative return on investment.

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