Student loans climb: top 10 states with the highest college debt

Going to college or university isn't cheap, and with an average debt of $29,400, many graduates will be paying for their student loans long after graduation day. These states are home to the highest average student debts among loan-carrying, graduating seniors in 2012, according to The Institute for College Access and Success (TICAS). Can you guess which state had the highest? 

6. Iowa

Matthew Holst/Iowa City Press-Citizen/AP/File
In this file photo from Sept. 5, 2009, fans disembark from the Hawkeye Express train before Iowa's NCAA college football game at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City, Iowa. The university's class of 2012 had a student debt of $28,554.

Average debt: $29,456

Students with debt: 71 percent

Graceland University seniors who graduated in 2012 also finished school with a debt load nearly $10,000 more than the statewide average for Iowa. Most of those students – approximately 85 percent of the graduating class _walked away with some amount of debt.

Iowa’s overall debt level was nearly $1,000 below the rate for seniors at Iowa State University, which averaged $30,374. Two other public schools – the University of Iowa and the University of Northern Iowa – reported average student debt lower than the state as a whole that year.

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