{"id":76396,"date":"2017-03-07T07:00:40","date_gmt":"2017-03-07T12:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=76396"},"modified":"2025-06-20T09:26:23","modified_gmt":"2025-06-20T13:26:23","slug":"crushing-student-loan-debt-not-ucfs-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/crushing-student-loan-debt-not-ucfs-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Crushing Student Loan Debt Is Not the Story at UCF"},"content":{"rendered":"
Bryce Nelson is excited he\u2019s on track to graduate from UCF with relatively little student-loan debt<\/a>.<\/p>\n The marketing junior relies on federal financial aid to cover tuition and housing, gets a little help from home, and has a campus work-study job. \u00a0He\u2019s on track to finish his undergraduate degree<\/a> with less than $7,000 in student loans outstanding.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m really grateful that I\u2019m not graduating with a ton of debt,\u201d said Nelson, 21, who is the first in his family to go to college. \u201cI know people in their 40s still paying on student loans. Even though I have some debt I know I can pay it back very quickly because it is such a small amount. I most definitely will pay if off extremely quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n But what of the alarming news students hear about the rising cost of college nationwide and how some graduates are crushed under the burden of large debt? It turns out that is not the story at UCF.<\/p>\n Federal statistics indicate that in the United States 42 million people owe $1.3 trillion in student-loan debt<\/a>. The average student owes about $37,000 upon graduation, but in breaking down the numbers, most of that debt is concentrated among borrowers attending for-profit and non-selective institutions.<\/p>\n 色花堂, where one out of every four students is a first-generation attendee, students graduate with some of the lowest debt in the nation. Almost half (44 percent percent) graduate with no debt<\/a>. Of those who do incur debt \u2013 including those who transferred to UCF carrying some student loans \u2013 the average is $22,000. That\u2019s about half the debt of graduates at for-profit institutions.<\/p>\n Those numbers help to explain why UCF is consistently ranked among the nation\u2019s best values by Kiplinger and The Princeton Review. As one of the largest universities in the country with 64,000 students, UCF is ranked among the top 100 public universities nationwide by U.S. News & World Report.<\/p>\n UCF students such as Nelson say they feel they are borrowing smartly while earning a degree, and taking on less college-related debt as a result. Nelson, for example, borrowed $3,000 during his freshman year for living expenses and tuition. \u00a0He took out two loans for $2,000 each over the past year to cover his living expenses, partly because he missed the early deadline to apply for financial aid, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI just wasn\u2019t paying attention,\u201d Nelson said. \u201cIt\u2019s not like UCF didn\u2019t tell me, either. There were a bunch of emails and reminders. So I missed out on a lot of money,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Alicia Keaton, director of the Office of Student Financial Assistance, said she asks students to file the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) early — by December — in order to improve the chances of receiving the financial aid for the following Fall semester.<\/p>\n When that\u2019s not enough help, UCF has a program called A2O (Access to Scholarship Opportunities) that allows students to apply for a host of campus-wide scholarships using one application<\/a>. Some 14,000 students used the service last year.<\/p>\n Keaton\u2019s office advises students with two major tips: Only borrow what you need, and total student loans should not exceed half of your expected annual starting salary.<\/p>\n