Over four or more years of college, the size of these parent loans often reach staggering amounts. An exclusive Newsweek analysis of federal data on PLUS loans has identified more than 150 schools where the median amount that parents borrow while their child is in school exceeds the maximum $27,000 that traditional undergraduates are allowed to borrow. The typical loan at the 50 schools that Newsweek has identified where parents borrow the most starts at nearly double that amount: $50,190. And at the school where parents borrow the absolute most, half take out loans of $84,000 or more.
How do the numbers get so big for parents, compared to their kids? Unlike the low annual caps placed on loans to undergraduates, parents are allowed to borrow up to the full cost of attendance each year (including room and board, fees, books and travel) minus any financial aid the student receives. That can add up quickly, considering that the typical four-year public institution cost $38,640 last year, including tuition, fees, room and board, while the tab hit $50,770 at the average private college or university.
Those private schools dominate the list of colleges where parents borrow the most, accounting for 46 of the 50 academic institutions named. Only one school on the list is a public college, Citadel Military College of South Carolina, and the remaining three are for-profit institutions.
Worth noting for families with a student interested in the arts: Eight of the colleges in the top 50 are art schools, with six of them landing among the 10 most expensive schools in terms of PLUS borrowing, led by Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York and Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida.
Although the amounts typically borrowed at all 50 of these schools are large, most parents do manage to keep up with payments. Within two years, 10 percent or more of parents are late paying their monthly bill or in default at just six of the schools on Newsweek’s list.
There’s a clear payoff to the borrowing for families too: Graduation rates at most of the colleges on this list are above the national average of 63 percent who earn their degree after six years of attendance.
The following are the 50 colleges and universities where parents took on the most PLUS debt, along with information on the portion of families struggling with those loans, the school’s eight-year graduation rate and the share of lower-income parents taking on such debt at each school.
50. University of Scranton
Scranton, Pennsylvania Graduation rate: 77% Median loan amount: $42,326 Default and delinquency rate: 3% Low-income borrowers: 38%
49. Roger Williams University
Bristol, Rhode Island Graduation rate: 59% Median loan amount: $42,500 Default and delinquency rate: 6% Low-income borrowers: 36%
48. Otis College of Art and Design
Los Angeles, California Graduation rate: 64% Median loan amount: $42,968 Default and delinquency rate: 5% Low-income borrowers: 69%
47. Stevenson University
Location: Stevenson, Maryland Graduation rate: 59% Median loan amount: $43,000 Default and delinquency rate: 9% Low-income borrowers: 50%
46. Champlain College
Burlington, Vermont Graduation rate: 61% Median loan amount: $43,374 Default and delinquency rate: 5% Low-income borrowers: 40%
45. Marymount Manhattan College
New York, New York Graduation rate: 47% Median loan amount: $43,450 Default and delinquency rate: 6% Low-income borrowers: 47%
44. University of Miami
Coral Gables, Florida Graduation rate: 83% Median loan amount: $43,807 Default and delinquency rate: 6% Low-income borrowers: 46%
43. New York Film Academy
Burbank, California Graduation rate: 71% Median loan amount: $43,907 Default and delinquency rate: 9% Low-income borrowers: 59%
42. Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Worcester, Massachusetts Graduation rate: 88% Median loan amount: $43,921 Default and delinquency rate: 4% Low-income borrowers: 35%
41. Sacred Heart University
Fairfield, Connecticut Graduation rate: 64% Median loan amount: $44,000 Default and delinquency rate: 6% Low-income borrowers: 39%
40. Citadel Military College of South Carolina
Charleston, South Carolina Graduation rate: 74% Median loan amount: $44,318 Default and delinquency rate: 7% Low-income borrowers: 34%
39. West Coast University-Los Angeles
North Hollywood, California Graduation rate: 64% Median loan amount: $44,376 Default and delinquency rate: 5% Low-income borrowers: 76%
38. University of the Pacific
Stockton, California Graduation rate: 73% Median loan amount: $44,468 Default and delinquency rate: 5% Low-income borrowers: 54%
37. Loyola University Chicago
Chicago, Illinois Graduation rate: 74% Median loan amount: $44,749 Default and delinquency rate: 6% Low-income borrowers: 48%
36. St. John’s University-New York
Queens, New York Graduation rate: 60% Median loan amount: $44,887 Default and delinquency rate: 11% Low-income borrowers: 56%
35. George Washington University
Washington, D.C. Graduation rate: 82% Median loan amount: $45,000 Default and delinquency rate: 6% Low-income borrowers: 36%
34. Baylor University
Waco, Texas Graduation rate: 75% Median loan amount: $46,668 Default and delinquency rate: 6% Low-income borrowers: 47%
33. Boston University
Boston, Massachusetts Graduation rate: 86% Median loan amount: $46,768 Default and delinquency rate: 7% Low-income borrowers: 40%
32. University of San Francisco
San Francisco, California Graduation rate: 76% Median loan amount: $47,920 Default and delinquency rate: 4% Low-income borrowers: 46%
31. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, California Graduation rate: 92% Median loan amount: $48,307 Default and delinquency rate: 3% Low-income borrowers: 42%
30. Hampton University
Hampton, Virginia Graduation rate: 49% Median loan amount: $48,606 Default and delinquency rate: 11% Low-income borrowers: 54%
29. Boston College
Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts Graduation rate: 91% Median loan amount: $49,000 Default and delinquency rate: 4% Low-income borrowers: 26%
28. Morehouse College
Atlanta, Georgia Graduation rate: 55% Median loan amount: $49,087 Default and delinquency rate: 11% Low-income borrowers: 65%
27. Hofstra University
Hempstead, New York Graduation rate: 63% Median loan amount: $49,197 Default and delinquency rate: 10% Low-income borrowers: 47%
26. Loyola University Maryland
Baltimore, Maryland Graduation rate: 82% Median loan amount: $49,245 Default and delinquency rate: 6% Low-income borrowers: 33%
25. Texas Christian University
Fort Worth, Texas Graduation rate: 78% Median loan amount: $49,248 Default and delinquency rate: 4% Low-income borrowers: 32%
24. Bryant University
Smithfield, Rhode Island Graduation rate: 78% Median loan amount: $50,511 Default and delinquency rate: 5% Low-income borrowers: 37%
23. Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Daytona Beach
Daytona Beach, Florida Graduation rate: 60% Median loan amount: $50,696 Default and delinquency rate: 5% Low-income borrowers: 54%
22. Drexel University
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Graduation rate: 66% Median loan amount: $50,758 Default and delinquency rate: 7% Low-income borrowers: 46%
21. The New School
New York, New York Graduation rate: 71% Median loan amount: $51,635 Default and delinquency rate: 6% Low-income borrowers: 59%
20. Saint Mary’s College of California
Moraga, California Graduation rate: 76% Median loan amount: $52,037 Default and delinquency rate: 4% Low-income borrowers: 44%
19. Belmont University
Nashville, Tennessee Graduation rate: 71% Median loan amount: $52,490 Default and delinquency rate: 4% Low-income borrowers: 33%
18. Fordham University
Bronx, New York Graduation rate: 77% Median loan amount: $52,686 Default and delinquency rate: 6% Low-income borrowers: 32%
17. American University
Washington, D.C. Graduation rate: 79% Median loan amount: $52,884 Default and delinquency rate: 5% Low-income borrowers: 36%
16. MCPHS University
Boston, Massachusetts Graduation rate: 82% Median loan amount: $53,794 Default and delinquency rate: 7% Low-income borrowers: 62%
15. Saint Joseph’s University
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Graduation rate: 78% Median loan amount: $54,068 Default and delinquency rate: 4% Low-income borrowers: 28%
14. Howard University
Washington, D.C. Graduation rate: 62% Median loan amount: $54,285 Default and delinquency rate: 13% Low-income borrowers: 68%
13. The Catholic University of America
Washington, D.C. Graduation rate: 72% Median loan amount: $54,628 Default and delinquency rate: 8% Low-income borrowers: 33%
12. Quinnipiac University
Hamden, Connecticut Graduation rate: 76% Median loan amount: $57,949 Default and delinquency rate: 7% Low-income borrowers: 36%
11. University of San Diego
San Diego, California Graduation rate: 80% Median loan amount: $59,252 Default and delinquency rate: 5% Low-income borrowers: 39%
10. Loyola Marymount University
Los Angeles, California Graduation rate: 82% Median loan amount: $60,500 Default and delinquency rate: 4% Low-income borrowers: 43%
9. American Musical and Dramatic Academy
New York, New York Graduation rate: 66% Median loan amount: $61,411 Default and delinquency rate: 10% Low-income borrowers: 60%
8. New York University
New York, New York Graduation rate: 85% Median loan amount: $66,687 Default and delinquency rate: 5% Low-income borrowers: 46%
7. Savannah College of Art and Design
Savannah, Georgia Graduation rate: 65% Median loan amount: $66,714 Default and delinquency rate: 6% Low-income borrowers: 51%
6. School of Visual Arts
New York, New York Graduation rate: 68% Median loan amount: $70,445 Default and delinquency rate: 9% Low-income borrowers: 60%
5. Berklee College of Music
Boston, Massachusetts Graduation rate: 63% Median loan amount: $72,056 Default and delinquency rate: 8% Low-income borrowers: 44%
4. High Point University
High Point, North Carolina Graduation rate: 63% Median loan amount: $73,101 Default and delinquency rate: 6% Low-income borrowers: 32%
3. Ringling College of Art and Design
Sarasota, Florida Graduation rate: 67% Median loan amount: $76,470 Default and delinquency rate: 3% Low-income borrowers: 56%
2. Pratt Institute
Brooklyn, New York Graduation rate: 69% Median loan amount: $76,882 Default and delinquency rate: 6% Low-income borrowers: 54%
1. Spelman College
Atlanta, Georgia Graduation rate: 77% Median loan amount: $84,671 Default and delinquency rate: 9% Low-income borrowers: 66%
Notes: Data is from July 1, 2017 to June 30, 2019. Default is defined as failure to make payments for more than 360 days, delinquent as failure to pay for 31 to 360 days. Median loan amount represents how much parents borrowed for each student who graduated or otherwise left school during the two-year period. Eligibility for a federal Pell grant, given to students with exceptional financial need, is used as a proxy for low-income borrowers; the data represents the percentage of Parent PLUS borrowers whose student is eligible for a Pell grant. Graduation rates are over eight years and current as of July 20,2021.
Source: College Scorecard, U.S. Department of Education
Correction 7/21/2021, 11:25 a.m. ET: This story has been updated to reflect the correct eight-year graduation rate for High Point University, as reported by the Department of Education’s College Scorecard.
