FDU-Florham Students Graduate With Most Student Debt In NJ: Study

FLORHAM PARK, NJ — Student loan payments are just a normal part of post-college life for many New Jersey students, but students graduating from one New Jersey university take on a much heftier loan burden than their counterparts at other local colleges, a new report says.

Fairleigh Dickinson University students at the Florham Park campus graduate with $42,000 in student loans, the most of any school in the Garden State, according to new data published by LendEdu. About 85 percent of the student body will graduate with some debt, and 24 percent of students will take out private loans. For those with private loans, their average debt burden rises to just under $48,000.

Tuition per year is currently $42,096 at the Florham Park campus; that number does not include room and board or other fees. Residence hall fees range from about $7,000 for a triple room, all the way up to $16,716 for a single. Fees and dining hall passes can add another several thousand dollars.

The sticker price can be deceiving, however. Few students actually wind up paying the sticker price. According to Niche, a school analytics website, the average FDU student pays just over $18,000 a year after scholarships, grants, and other forms of aid.

The New Jersey school with the lowest amount of debt is Princeton, which graduates students with an average of $9,000 in debt. The second place school, Ramapo, sends students into post-grad life with about $10,000 worth of debt.

Nationwide, Bethel College, a Christian liberal arts school in Indiana, sends students off with the smallest debt loads, with an average debt amount of $5,633. On the other end of the spectrum, The New School College of Performing Arts students graduate with an average of $77,353 in debt.

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