Student Debt

Published March 26, 2019 This content is archived.

The University at Buffalo offers students an excellent education at a cost that is more affordable than most other major public research universities.    In addition, the university supports a generous merit and need-based aid program which provides significant scholarship funds to incoming freshmen.

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The average debt load for UB students at graduation is $25,598. The average national student loan debt is $28,650, according to The Project on Student Debt, an initiative of the Institute for College Access and Success.  The New York State average on loan debt for students graduating in 2017 was $30,931.

It’s worth noting that UB’s student loan default rate is only 3.2 percent, compared to 10.8 percent nationally.   This low rate indicates that UB students can afford to repay the loans they are taking out.  This data is for first-time students, which is the statistic cited nationally and reported by SUNY schools on their Common Data Set.

Also, about 57% percent of UB graduates took out loans.  Nationally, 65 percent of students who graduated from public and non-profit colleges in 2017 had student loan debt.  Within New York State, 60 percent of students who graduated from public and non-profit colleges in 2017 had student loan debt.