{"id":15512,"date":"2013-07-26T09:00:34","date_gmt":"2013-07-26T14:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/chart-of-the-week-how-americans-pay-for-college-2\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T03:30:07","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:30:07","slug":"chart-of-the-week-how-americans-pay-for-college-2","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2013\/07\/26\/chart-of-the-week-how-americans-pay-for-college-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Chart of the Week: How Americans pay for college"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/assets.pewresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2013\/07\/FT_Pay_College.png\"><img data-dominant-color=\"d8dcdd\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #d8dcdd;\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"514\" height=\"791\"  srcset=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2013\/07\/FT_Pay_College.png?resize=480,739 480w, https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2013\/07\/FT_Pay_College.png?resize=514,791 514w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 480px, (max-width: 782px) 782px, 640px\" class=\"wp-image-27917 not-transparent\" alt=\"FT_Pay_College\" src=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2013\/07\/FT_Pay_College.png\" ><\/a><\/figure>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A college education, regardless of its future value (which has been the topic of much discussion of late) is without doubt one of the biggest financial challenges American families will face. A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.salliemae.com\/about\/news_info\/research\/how-america-pays\/\">new report<\/a> from Sallie Mae, the student-loan company, shows how families have met that challenge in recent years.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Though there are many sources of funds for college &#8212; from loans to work-study jobs to that Series EE savings bond Aunt Millie gave you for your fourth birthday &#8212; a useful approach is to divide them into three groups: parents&#8217; and students&#8217; own resources (savings, income), money you have to pay back (loans), and money you don&#8217;t have to pay back (grants, scholarships, gifts).<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Looked at that way, American families are relying more on outside sources of college money and less on their own resources. In the 2012-13 academic year, parents&#8217; and students&#8217; own money together made up less than 38% of the average family&#8217;s college spending, down from 46% in 2008-09. Parents&#8217; contributions in particular fell sharply, leading Sallie Mae to comment that &#8220;one outcome\u00a0of the recession and the slow economic recovery is the\u00a0stress that it has placed on parents\u2019 ability to pay for\u00a0college from their income and savings.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another outcome has been greater reliance on grants, scholarships and loans. The\u00a0&#8220;money you don&#8217;t have to pay back&#8221; category grew to 35% of college costs in the most recent academic year, from 31% four years earlier. Loans accounted for 27% of the average family&#8217;s college spending, up from 23% in 2008-09; the average annual total loan amount grew to $5,760 from $4,470. (About one out of five U.S. households owed student debt in 2010, more than double the share two decades earlier,\u00a0according to <a href=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/social-trends\/2012\/09\/26\/a-record-one-in-five-households-now-owe-student-loan-debt\/\">a Pew Research Center analysis<\/a> of government data.)<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>U.S. families are relying less on their own resources and more on outside sources (scholarships, loans and the like) to pay for college.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":145,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"sub_headline":null,"sub_title":"","_crdt_document":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"relatedPosts":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0,"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"bylines":[{"key":"b4c479ea6e9e1e003b72aecd3177ad30","termId":842}],"acknowledgements":[],"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[]},"categories":[374,237,375,252],"bylines":[842],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[467],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[515],"research-teams":[519],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-15512","short-read","type-short-read","status-publish","hentry","category-higher-education","category-personal-finances","category-student-loans-2","category-student-loans-1","bylines-drew-desilver","formats-short-read","regions-countries-united-states","research-teams-social-trends"],"label":"Short 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