Despite the publicity in recent years surrounding an ostensible "student loan crisis" that has saddled a generation of college students and their parents with overwhelming amounts of student loan debt, a large number of college students are actually graduating with little or no debt from student loans, newly released data has revealed.

However, the likelihood that a college student will take on any student loan debt depends largely on the type of school he or she attends, with students at for-profit career schools, online schools, vocational training programs, and other for-profit institutions tending to rely on student loans in much higher proportions.

Many College Students Eschewing Student Loans

About one in three college graduates leaves school without any debt from student loans, according to data compiled by the U.S. Department of Education as part of its National Postsecondary Student Aid Study, which is conducted every four years.

Of those students who earned a bachelor’s degree in the 2007–08 academic year, 34 percent graduated with no debt from student loans — a figure that has held steady over the past four years. Of those students who earned either a two-year or four-year degree or certificate, 41 percent graduated with no student loan debt.

The For-Profit Exception: Student Loan Debt Saturates Career Schools

A breakdown of the NPSAS student loan debt data, however, reveals that student loan borrowing diverges widely across types of higher education institutions, with students at for-profit colleges borrowing money for their education more often and in larger amounts.

Virtually all for-profit students are graduating with at least some debt from college loans.

Among graduates of two-year associate degree programs, for example, whereas only 38 percent of those in public programs left school with at least one education loan, 98 percent of those in for-profit programs did so.

Among graduates of two-year certificate programs, only 30 percent of students in public programs left school with education debt, while 90 percent of students in the for-profit programs did so.

Of those students who earned bachelor’s degrees, 62 percent of those in public four-year programs and 72 percent of those in private four-year programs graduated with debt from student loans, while 96 percent of students in for-profit bachelor’s programs did.

More Private Student Loans Seen at Career Schools

Students in for-profit programs were also more likely than their private and public counterparts to leave school with debt from non-federal private student loans.

Overall, 30 percent of students earning a higher education degree in 2007–08 had taken out private student loans. But the percentages were much higher among students of for-profit schools.

Among graduates of associate degree programs, 60 percent of those in for-profit programs had taken on debt from private student loans, compared to just 15 percent of those in public two-year programs.

Slightly more than half of the students finishing a for-profit certificate program graduated with private student loans, while only 12 percent of the students in public two-year certificate programs did.

And of those graduates earning bachelor’s degrees, 64 percent enrolled in for-profit colleges had taken out private student loans, compared to 42 percent of those enrolled in private four-year universities and 28 percent of those enrolled in public four-year universities.

Larger Student Loans for Students at Career Schools

In addition to turning to federal college loans and non-federal private student loans more frequently than students at public and private nonprofit institutions, students at for-profit colleges are also borrowing larger amounts of money.

The median student loan debt of borrowers in for-profit associate degree programs in 2007–08 was $18,783, almost three times as much as the median debt load of $7,125 for students in public two-year associate programs.

For students in for-profit certificate programs, the median student loan debt was $9,744, while students in public two-year certificate programs graduated with a median student loan debt of $6,534.

Among those students who earned bachelor’s degrees, graduates of for-profit programs carried a median student loan debt of $32,653, compared to a median debt load of $22,375 for graduates of private four-year universities and $17,700 for graduates of public four-year schools. And while these median student loan debt levels represent a rise of only 5 percent for graduates of private four-year schools and 4 percent for graduates of public four-year schools, the median debt load for graduates of for-profit bachelor’s programs shot up by 23 percent, from $26,562 in 2003–04.

Higher Levels of Student Loan Debt to Come?

Industry experts speculate that student loan debt levels may be much higher in the next NPSAS study, scheduled for 2011–12, in light of the current recession, with unemployment still hovering around 10 percent and banks and other lenders still unwilling to extend credit to any consumers but those with the most sterling credit.

"Everybody is struggling much more," concedes Sandy Baum, an analyst with the College Board. "And private student loans are less available, now that a number of banks that were making those loans are no longer making them or no longer in business."

College tuition has continued to rise, and students and their families will be the ones to bear the brunt of that increase, in the form of student loan debt, says Lauren Asher, president of the Project on Student Debt, a nonprofit research group.

"We are asking people to bear more and more of the cost of higher education through borrowing," Asher says, "since neither state spending, need-based aid, or family incomes have kept up with the costs."