“MOST kids attending college these days get done with minimal debt and within the normal range.”
Actually, the average length of stay at a college exceeds 4 years, with many graduate graduating later in life. The average age now is 24. Not exactly “normal range”.
The average college debt is around $33,000. Not exactly, “minimal debt”.
I wonder what the median debt is? That would really be more meaningful—half above and half below. The average includes those like Doctors who incur hundreds of thousands in debt—from undergrad through grad school.
Knowing that my children and their cohorts are making about 45-50k when they graduate, their student debt is about 10% of their first ten years earnings.
That is not great, but its not prohibitive.
I graduated with about $7,500 in debt with an first years earnings of about $16,500. So as a percentage, it is higher than it used to be. But the starting salaries tend to be a lot higher.