Record Debt for Graduates of College Class 2016: $37,172

A record amount of debt – $37,172 on average – was rung up by this year's college graduates, said The Wall Street Journal in reporting on an analysis by higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz. That shattered last year's $35,000-plus, also a record.

Kantrowitz came up with the projections based on federal student loan data and other calculations, including tuition inflation.

"Like other, similar analyses, Kantrowitz's estimates of average education debt have gone up with every new graduating class for more than a decade," noted Credit.com. "There's little reason to believe the class of 2017 would be an exception to this unpleasant trend."

"Wages haven't kept pace with growing student loan debt (though the starting salary for college grads has gone up recently), but regardless of what their first jobs end up paying, borrowers have to find a way to stay on top of their loans." 

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel quoted figures from the Institute for College Access & Success, a nonprofit research group, showing that from 2004 to 2014 the share of graduates with debt rose modestly from 65 percent to 69 percent, but the average debt at graduation rose at more than twice the rate of inflation.

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's financial aid director Tim Opgenorth told the Journal Sentinel that students should think more about managing debt while in college to reduce the burden after graduation.

"Hopefully students have been borrowing responsibly," Opgenorth said. "It's important that they take out no more than they need to so they can pay it back in a timely matter."

The Journal Sentinel said the Class of 2016 is joining a stronger job market, with the National Association of Colleges and Employers reporting that businesses are expecting to hire 5.2 percent more recent graduates this year than in 2015.

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