New York Colleges With Heftiest Student Loan Debt

The words "college" are often synonymous with the words "student debt." The increase in students and post-grads in debt is due to the student taking out loans in larger amounts while taking longer to repay the debts, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York says.

According to recent data analyzed by LendEdu, a student loan refinancing company, the average student loan debt per borrower for the class of 2016 is $27,975, a decrease of 1.5 percent from the class of 2015.

The data shows that New York was higher than the national average. The Empire State has the No. 13 highest average student debt per borrower in the United States with 64 percent of college graduates in debt. The average student loan debt per borrower in New York is $30,304, a 2.68 percent decrease from 2015, LendEdu says.

The data shows which Long Island colleges come with the heftiest debt: (The below schools were reviewed by LendEdu; other Long Island schools were not listed)

(school— average student debt per borrower; percentage of graduates with student debt)

• Long Island University-LIU— $43,243; 84 percent
• Long Island University-LIU Post— $35,102; 62 percent
• Molloy College— $33,826; 72 percent
• Adelphi University— $32,558; 64 percent
• St. Joseph's College, Long Island Campus— $27,364; 66 percent
• Stony Brook University, SUNY— $24,656; 55 percent
• Hofstra University— N/A; 69 percent

Of the 250 colleges with the highest amount of student loan debt per borrower, 80 percent of the colleges were private, while 47 percent of the 250 colleges with the lowest amount of student loan debt per borrower were public.

10 New York State Public Colleges With Highest Student Loan Debt

(school— average student debt per borrower; percentage of graduates with student debt)

1. SUNY at Fredonia— $32,083; 82 percent
2. SUNY College of Technology at Canton— $31,665; 89 percent
3. SUNY Purchase College— $31,188; 68 percent
4. The College at Brockport, SUNY— $29,748; 80 percent
5. The College at Cortland, SUNY— $29,674; 75 percent
6. SUNY Plattsburgh— $28,779; 75 percent
7. SUNY Oswego— $28,676; 81 percent
8. SUNY College at Potsdam— $28,582; 79 percent
9. SUNY College of Technology at Delhi— $28,376; 81 percent
10. Morrisville State College— $28,106; 90 percent

Top 10 New York State Private Colleges With Highest Student Loan Debt

1. The Culinary Institute of America— $51,200; 63 percent
2. Metropolitan College of New York— $49,357; 95 percent
3. Long Island University-LIU— $43,243; 84 percent
4. Ithaca College— $40,595; 70 percent
5. Nazareth College of Rochester— $40,567; 82 percent
6. Marist College— $39,584; 66 percent
7. Manhattan College— $39,443; 76 percent
8. Rochester Institute of Technology— $38,198; 76 percent
9. St. Lawrence University— $37,919; 58 percent
10. Syracuse University— $37,753; 63 percent

Student Debt Nationwide

Pennsylvania had the highest average student loan debt per borrower in the country with an average debt to $35,185 per borrower. Utah had the lowest average student debt per borrower of $18,810, the data shows.

According to LendEdu's analysis, the Top 10 states with the highest average student loan debt per borrower are:

1. Pennsylvania: $35,185
2. New Hampshire: $35,143
3. Delaware: $33,650
4. Connecticut: $32,650
5. South Dakota: $31,518
6. Minnesota: $31,342
7. Montana: $30,994
8. Massachusetts: $30,584
9. Rhode Island: $30,549

>>> Click here to see the full list.

At the end of 2016, student loan balances stood at about $1.3 trillion, a whopping 170 percent increase from 2006. The New York Fed says that in 2016 only about 5 percent of student debt holders owed more than $100,000 in debt, however, they account for nearly 30 percent of the total outstanding balances, creating a disproportionate influence on the overall picture.

Feroze Dhanoa contributed to this report

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