Burning Beach

The Minnesota State University Student Association has released the results of a survey it issued in September 2010 to help assess the impact of student loan debt on its members. Because the survey’s number of responses is small? just 46 responses to date? the results don’t hold tremendous scientific value, but they do paint a picture of how the recession has affected college loan debt and default rates in the state.According to the compiled results, the survey respondents? all of whom graduated from one of Minnesota’s public four-year universities? currently carry an average of $32,456 in student loans. That’s 40percent more student loan debt than the national average of $23,186.The respondents reported an average monthly student loan payment of $297 with an average loan repayment plan of 15years. Although federal education loans have a standard repayment horizon of 10years, borrowers who hold more than $30,000 in federal college loan debt may request a debt-he ppi judicial review lp repayment plan that extends their repayment term to up to 25years.These results are consistent with the findings of the U.S.Department of Education released last fall, which show that Minnesotans leave school with more federal college loans than the average student nationwide but tend to default less often than borrowers in other states.According to the Department of Education, 55percent of Minnesota college students take on federal school loans to help pay for college expenses, compared to 37percent of undergraduates nationwide and 47percent of undergraduates from Midwestern states.While carrying higher student loan debt loads, however, Minnesota borrowers have a default rate on their federal college loans of just 3.7percent, compared to the national default rate of 7percent.These default rates are measured from students whose federal school loans entered repayment in 2007?2008 and who defaulted before October 1, 2009.The 2008 default rate in Minnesota of 3.