Top Universities -- And Where to Go to Avoid Debt

It's a fact of life: Many undergraduates leave college weighed down by student debt. U.S. News has compiled a list of the schools whose students in the class of 2005 graduated with the heaviest and lightest debt loads. The data include loans taken out by students from the colleges themselves, from financial institutions, and from federal, state, and local governments. Parents' loans are not included.

The second number entered for a college, labeled "Average amount of debt," is the average cumulative amount borrowed by those students who incurred debt, not the average for all students. The first number indicates what percentage of the student body has taken on debt and, by extrapolation, what percentage is debt free.

1. Seton Hall University
South Orange, NJ
Percent of graduates with debt: 61 percent
Average amount of debt: $37,724

2. St. Louis University
St. Louis, MO
Percent of graduates with debt: 68 percent
Average amount of debt: $34,538

3. New York University
New York, NY
Percent of graduates with debt: 61 percent
Average amount of debt: $34,417

4. Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Worcester, MA
Percent of graduates with debt: 83 percent
Average amount of debt: $34,409

5. University of North Dakota
Grand Forks, ND
Percent of graduates with debt: 72 percent
Average amount of debt: $33,032

Least Debt -- National Universities

1. Princeton University
Princeton, NJ
Percent of graduates with debt: 26 percent
Average amount of debt: $4,965

2. Harvard University
Cambridge, MA
Percent of graduates with debt: 42 percent
Average amount of debt: $9,717

3. Howard University
Washington, D.C.
Percent of graduates with debt: 88 percent
Average amount of debt: $10,868

4. Utah State University
Logan, UT
Percent of graduates with debt: 25 percent
Average amount of debt: $11,040

5. University of Massachusetts-Amherst
Percent of graduates with debt: 55 percent
Average amount of debt: $11,227

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