Average student debt of students at top U.S. universities 2021 | Statista

In 2021, the average student loan debt of graduates of Northwestern University, ranked as the 9th best college in the United States, amounted to 35,219 U.S. dollars. For students at Princeton University, the best college in the U.S., they left college with student loan debt totaling 9,623 U.S. dollars on average.

Average student debt of students at the top 20 U.S. universities in 2021

University (rank)	Average student debt in U.S. dollars
Princeton University (1)	9,623
Harvard University (2)	18,197
Columbia University (2)	29,757
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2)	22,735
Yale University (5)	14,884
University of Chicago (6)	26,560
Stanford University (6)	24,337
University of Pennsylvania (8)	23,876
Northwestern University (9)	35,219
California Institute of Technology (9)	16,950
Johns Hopkins University (9)	21,655
Duke University (9)	24,219
Dartmouth College (13)	23,850
Brown University (14)	24,443
Vanderbilt University (14)	22,808
Washington University in St. Louis (14)	19,649
Rice University (17)	24,188
Cornell University (17)	30,254
University of Notre Dame (19)	28,696
University of California - Los Angeles (20)	20,305

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Release date

September 2021

More information

Region

United States

Survey time period

Fall 2020*

Supplementary notes

*The ranking of universities can be found here. Average total indebtedness taken from the 2020 bachelor's degree graduating class.

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