Iowa State #2 - In Student Debt

This morning's Iowa State Daily had a rather shocking back-to-school statistic:
 Iowa State ranked second in the nation among public institutions in highest debt among graduates, according to a recent survey. Iowa Board of Regents members say recent tuition hikes may not be the reason for the ranking, though.

Sixty-eight percent of ISU students graduated with an average debt of more than $27,000, according to a study published by U.S. News and World Report 2006 Edition of America's Best Colleges. Only Idaho State University's graduates carried more debt among public universities, with 69 percent of graduates carrying an average debt of nearly $30,000.

The reasons that are specified are not exactly clear, but the reason that Iowa's college graduates leave the area have another component:  why take a big paycut to stay in Iowa when your college debt is near-crippling for a new member of the workforce?

(What's not entirely clear is why Iowa State's students face higher debts that University of Iowa or UNI students - the tuition rates should be about the same?)

In other "Iowa State" related news, Washington Monthly published their own rankings of colleges and university, measured in terms of how good the school is for the health of the nation overall.  (Measuring research, public service, enabling of social mobility, etc.)

The article points out that Iowa State Beats Princeton:
Princeton finished behind schools such as the University of Arizona and Iowa State—schools with which it probably does not often consider itself to be in competition—not just because of its comparatively low research numbers, which are perhaps to be expected given that the university doesn't have a medical school and considers its mission to be teaching, not research. What really did in Princeton were mediocre scores on national service and social mobility, categories in which it should have excelled.

As a personal note, that's enough "Iowa State Blogging" for this University of Iowa graduate!