Our Maine Street's Aroostook Issue 16 : Spring 2013 | Page 52

UMFK Grads Have
According to a recent report issued by the nationallyrecognized U.S. News & World Report, recent graduates
of the University of Maine at Fort Kent carry the least
amount of average education debt upon graduation
than any public college or university in the nation. The
average debt load for a 2011 UMFK graduate was a
miserly $9,505.
UMFK was included among a listing of the top 10 colleges
where borrowers owed an average of about $10,000, or
less, at graduation. UMFK was the top-rated public higher
education institution on the U.S. News “Short List” of 10
Colleges Where Graduates Have the Least Debt. The list
also included such venerable institutions as Princeton and
Yale universities.
Nation-wide, sixty-eight percent of graduates in the class
of 2011 borrowed to help pay for college, according to
data reported by 1,033 ranked colleges in a 2012 U.S.

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News survey. On average, those students had $26,220 in
debt. The debt data used in these calculations include
loans taken out by students from colleges, financial
institutions, and federal, state, and local governments,
and exclude any loans taken by parents.
“At a time when we read about college graduates being
burdened with debt, it is refreshing to see firm evidence
that Maine’s public universities offer affordable pathways
to a bachelor’s degree and economic opportunity. The
low debt of UMFK graduates shows what a great value
and tremendous return on investment a UMFK education
is,” said President Wilson G. Hess.
U.S. News surveyed more than 1,800 colleges and
universities for its 2012 survey of undergraduate programs.
Schools self-reported a myriad of data regarding their
academic programs and the makeup of their student body,
among other areas. While U.S. News uses much of the
survey data to rank schools for its annual Best Colleges