Nearly half of families report taking out student loans, up from this time last year

Washington, DC, August 6, 2024 – The latest Sallie Mae/Ipsos report—“How America Pays for College 2024” —finds that while reported college spending is consistent from last year, more undergraduate families now report borrowing for college than in 2023. On average, American undergraduate families report spending $28,409 on college in the 2023-2024 academic year, consistent from 2022-2023. Nearly half (49%) of American undergraduate families report borrowing for college, up from two in five (41%) who said the same in 2023. Of the families who borrowed, just 40% say they discussed who would be responsible for paying back the student loans. Nearly half (48%) of those who borrowed say they expect their student loans to be forgiven.

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About the Study

Sallie Mae’s How America Pays for College examines how enrolled undergraduate students and parents of undergraduates view higher education and how they pay for it. The report considers education funding sources—from parent and student income and savings to scholarships, grants, and borrowed funds—and evaluates trends in payment strategies over time.

This 17th edition provides insights into families’ experience with the financial aid process, including researching and applying for scholarships, completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®), and understanding financial aid award offers from colleges and universities. For the first time, How America Pays for College 2024 assesses how families used artificial intelligence (AI) to help apply and make decisions around where to attend college. This year’s report also explores how students attending Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) approach higher education financing. Sallie Mae has again partnered with Ipsos, a global independent insights and analytics company, to conduct this study. How America Pays for College 2024 reflects the results of an online survey, conducted in English, with:

• 1,000 parents of undergraduate students, ages 18 to 24
• 1,000 undergraduate students, ages 18 to 24
• 349 undergraduate students, ages 18 to 24, who are attending a Historically Black College or University

The research was conducted between April 8, 2024 and May 14, 2024.

Dollar and proportional amounts in this report are averages that reflect composite representations intended to illustrate how the “typical” family paid for college. The composite is a computed formula that spreads individual responses across all survey respondents. The geographic regions discussed mirror those used by the U.S. Census Bureau. 

Target Population: Ipsos conducted the How America Pays for College survey online between Monday, April 8, 2024 and Tuesday, May 14, 2024. Ipsos interviewed 2,349 individuals: 1,000 parents of 18 to 24-year-old undergraduate students, 1,000 18 to 24-year-old undergraduate students, and an oversample of 349 18 to 24-year-old undergraduate students attending Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU).

Sample Design: The sample for this study was randomly drawn from Ipsos’ online panel, partner online panel sources, and “river” sampling and does not rely on a population frame in the traditional sense. Ipsos used fixed sample targets, unique to the study, in drawing sample. HBCU student oversample was randomly selected from a representative panel of college students nationwide from a 2-year or 4-year university. This sample design was a disproportionate stratified sample of parents of college students and college students. After a sample has been obtained, Ipsos calibrates respondent characteristics to be representative of the U.S. Population using standard procedures such as raking-ratio adjustments. The source of these population targets is 2020 American Community Survey data. The sample was stratified by additional variables, such as region and student enrollment status.

Weighting: To correct for the disproportionate stratified sample, both the parent and the student samples were weighted using a statistical technique called raking, in which all of the population marginal profiles of interest are replicated in the sample. The sample of parents was weighted by gender, age, race/ethnicity, region, education and by college information (region, size and type). The sample of students was weighted by gender, age, race/ethnicity, region, and by college information (region, size and type). The HBCU student sample was weighted to reflect their proportion within the student population nationwide. All of the demographic profiles used for both parents and students in the weights were sourced from the Current Population Survey (CPS). The National Center for Educational Statistics provided additional data for the college information weights.

Bayesian Credibility Intervals: The calculation of credibility intervals assumes that Y has a binomial distribution conditioned on the parameter θ\, i.e., Y|θ~Bin(n,θ), where n is the size of our sample. In this setting, Y counts the number of “yes”, or “1”, observed in the sample, so that the sample mean ((y ̅ ) is a natural estimate of the true population proportion θ. This model is often called the likelihood function, and it is a standard concept in both the Bayesian and the Classical framework. The Bayesian 1 statistics combines both the prior distribution and the likelihood function to create a posterior distribution. The posterior distribution represents our opinion about which are the plausible values for θ adjusted after observing the sample data. In reality, the posterior distribution is one’s knowledge base updated using the latest survey information. For the prior and likelihood functions specified here, the posterior distribution is also a beta distribution (π(θ/y)~β(y+a,n-y+b)),but with updated hyper-parameters. Our credibility interval for θ is based on this posterior distribution. As mentioned above, these intervals represent our belief about which are the most plausible values for θ given our updated knowledge base. There are different ways to calculate these intervals based onπ(θ/y). Since we want only one measure of precision for all variables in the survey, analogous to what is done within the Classical framework, we will compute the largest possible credibility interval for any observed sample. The worst case occurs when we assume that a=1 and b=1 and y=n/2. Using a simple approximation of the posterior by the normal distribution, the 95% credibility interval is given by, approximately 2.5.

Calculating How America Pays for College: The primary goal of the How America Pays for College national survey is to understand how and what the “typical American family” is paying for a college education. To enable this understanding and for these figures to be tracked over time, Ipsos has continued to calculate figures for total cost for college, and the use and value of the variety of funding sources, in the same way as they have been calculated in previous waves.

About Ipsos

Ipsos is one of the largest market research and polling companies globally, operating in 90 markets and employing over 18,000 people.

Our passionately curious research professionals, analysts and scientists have built unique multi-specialist capabilities that provide true understanding and powerful insights into the actions, opinions and motivations of citizens, consumers, patients, customers or employees. Our 75 solutions are based on primary data from our surveys, social media monitoring, and qualitative or observational techniques.

Our tagline "Game Changers" sums up our ambition to help our 5,000 customers move confidently through a rapidly changing world.

Founded in France in 1975, Ipsos has been listed on the Euronext Paris since July 1, 1999. The company is part of the SBF 120 and Mid-60 indices and is eligible for the Deferred Settlement Service (SRD).ISIN code FR0000073298, Reuters ISOS.PA, Bloomberg IPS:FP www.ipsos.com