Californians have the most federal student loan debt of any state in the country, and where Californians decide to go to college or university can only make matters worse.
Using the latest data from Peterson’s, an educational services company, the Institute for College Access & Success analyzed the student debt of those who graduated from four-year colleges in 2020. Only colleges public and private not-for-profits were included in the analysis.
TICAS found that state averages for graduation debt for the Class of 2020 ranged from $18,350 to $39,950. In California, about 46% of graduates graduated with student debt. The average graduate debt was $21,125.
Graduates of these five California public institutions graduated with the highest average amount of debt, according to TICAS:
| Institution | Average graduate debt |
| California State University Maritime Academy | $26,147 |
| California State University-San Marcos | $26,018 |
| Humboldt State University | $23,330 |
| California Polytechnic State University – San Luis Obispo | $22,933 |
| UC Santa Cruz | $21,189 |
At the other end of the list is CSU Chico, the four-year school with the lowest average debt at $5,738 per graduate.
Below are the five private institutions that had the highest average debt among graduates in 2020:
| Institution | Average graduate debt |
| University of Verne | $51,282 |
| Mills College | $49,772 |
| Azusa Pacific University | $49,353 |
| Marymount University of California | $42,018 |
| San Francisco Conservatory of Music | $42,000 |
Vanguard University of Southern California had the lowest average debt among private nonprofit institutions at $10,936.
In terms of private debt, that is, a borrower received funds from a source other than the federal government, the average graduate owes $26,693. Only about 5% of California graduates in 2020 had private student loan debt.
Graduates of these five public institutions had the highest private debt in California:
| Institution | Average graduate debt |
| California State University Maritime Academy | $37,959 |
| UC Berkeley | $37,775 |
| UCLA | $32,911 |
| University of San Diego | $30,266 |
| UC Santa Cruz | $29,809 |
Graduates from these five private, nonprofit institutions had the highest average private debt:
| Institution | Average graduate debt |
| San Francisco Art Institute | $91,183 |
| Pomona College | $79,928 |
| Scripps College | $76,406 |
| Woodbury University | $61,450 |
| Dominican University of California | $47,176 |
Four private institutions said their graduates had no private debt: Thomas Aquinas College, Soka University of America, Santa Clara University and University of Saint Katherine.
Examining data from the federal office of student aid, the Education Data Initiative found that California as a whole had the highest student loan debt in the federal government at $141.8 billion. dollars. This equates to almost 1% of the total national debt of $1.6 trillion.
According to the Education Data Initiative, more than 3.8 million student borrowers live in California. Among them, 16% owe less than $5,000 while 20% owe between $20,000 and $40,000.
If the Biden administration were to approve a debt relief plan of $10,000 per borrower, that would mean about 611,800 Californians could see their debt wiped out entirely and nearly 765,000 could see between a quarter and a half of that. their canceled debt.
Those statistics don’t take into account recent actions by the Biden administration that wiped out about $25 billion in federal student debt for some 1.3 million borrowers.
Earlier this month, President Biden indicated he was still considering federal student debt relief. Previous reports indicate he is expected to make a decision within the next two months. Details on the exact plan are limited, but multiple sources confirmed to The Hill that Biden plans to cut at least $10,000 per borrower.
