Slippery Rock University President William J. Behre knows of several studies that rank Pennsylvania among the states with the highest amounts of college student debt in the country.

The results of those studies are directly linked, he said, to other studies showing that Pennsylvania ranks among the lowest for public financial support for post secondary education.

“Depending on who you talk to and the measurement you use, Pennsylvania is 47th in ranking for state support for high education,” Behre said. “If you are not funding higher education adequately at the state level, at least in the state system, that is what I can speak to, students will have higher debt.”

A typical Slippery Rock student's loan debt is slightly above $35,000 and the state average is $36,000, he said. The average in Ohio, with which Slippery Rock competes for students, is $30,000, he said.

Tuition for state residents is $322 per credit, but fees increase the cost to $437. A student taking 12-18 credits will pay $3,858, but fees increase the cost to $5,238.

Out-of-state student tuition is $644 per credit with fees raising the cost to $769. A student taking 12-18 credits will pay $7,716 with fees increasing the cost to more than $9,200.

The university awarded scholarships, annual gifts and tuition funded grants totaling $5.4 million in the 2017-18 school year. That number doesn't include athletic aid and tuition waivers.

Slippery Rock awarded merit and need-based scholarships to 751 incoming freshmen that year from the university, the Slippery Rock University Foundation and/or Alumni Association funds.

The average merit scholarship award is $2,250.

A recent student debt ranking from WalletHub, which provides online financial advice and credit reports, ranked Pennsylvania second behind South Dakota in student debt.

WalletHub's study examined average student debt, share of students with debt, student debt as share of income, share of student loans in default, share of federal student loan borrowers enrolled in an income driven repayment plan, and share of student loan borrowers ages 50 and above to develop its ranking.

State funding is not among the variables considered in the study.

Pennsylvania provides the State System of Higher Education, which oversees Slippery Rock and 13 other state-owned colleges and universities, with an allocation that covers 25 to 27 percent of those schools' budgets.

The state covered about 50 percent of SSHE school budgets in the mid-1990s, but the current funding level is one of the lowest in the country, Behre said.

“Citizens of the state decided through legislators that funding higher education through public funding is not a priority. You're either going to fund it as a public priority and have a lower student debt load, or you're not going to fund it as a priority and have a higher student debt load. There is a correlation. It's logical to me that if the state isn't paying for it, someone has to,” Behre said.

Tuition is a factor in debt and the State System has frozen tuition only twice in its history, he said.

WalletHub placed Pennsylvania somewhere in the middle among states in the ranking for past due or default in student loans.

Slippery Rock's 5-percent loan default rate is below the national average of 11 percent, Behre said.

“Slippery Rock students are getting good jobs and paying off debt. By and large, our students aren't defaulting,” Behre said.

He said student debt studies should consider other factors, such as markets, for-profit schools versus nonprofit schools, and undergraduate programs versus graduate programs. There is a big difference between an undergraduate who borrows $20,000 and a medical school student who borrows $100,000, he said.

At Butler County Community College, most students graduate with no debt because of the low tuition, scholarships and a tightly managed budget, said Nick Neupauer, BC3 president.

“We're proud that 75 percent of our students leave debt free,” he said. “We're very proud of that. What helps in our case is we've done a fantastic job of fundraising at the college.”

In the last school year, 133 students received 118 scholarships totaling $184,000, said Ruth Purcell, executive director of the BC3 Education Foundation. She said those numbers are typical of most school years.

More than 500 people apply every year for BC3's 121 named scholarships that grant students from $250 to $2,000, she said.

“Last year, we had the lowest tuition in Western Pennsylvania, Eastern Ohio and northern West Virginia,” Neupauer said.

Including the recently approved $5 per credit tuition increase for the 2019-20 year, Butler County residents taking less than 12 credits or more than 17 credits per semester will be charged $118 per credit hour.

Full-time students taking between 12 and 17 credits will be charged a flat rate of $1,770 per semester, representing a $60 increase over the full-time rate of $1,710 per semester for 2018-19.

State students who do not live in Butler County and take less than 12 credits or more than 17 credits will pay $218 per credit and those taking 12 to 17 credits will be charged a flat, full-time rate of $3,270.

Out-of-state and international students taking fewer than 12 credits or more than 17 will pay $318 per credit. Those taking 12 to 17 credits will be charged a flat, full-time rate of $4,770.

Watchful spending also helps the college keep tuition low.

“We don't have any administrative bloat. We are not overstaffed. We run a tight ship. We do that intentionally,” Neupauer said. “That sacrifice pays dividends.”

He said students and parents should consider the difference between the costs of attending a college away from home and a college to which students can commute.

He said he knows of students who obtained associate degrees from BC3 and bachelor's degrees from Slippery Rock for a total cost of less than $30,000 and one student who graduated from both schools with no debt.

“If a student wants the overall college experience and goes away from home, it's up to the individual, but what we find is our students are utilizing BC3 in a proactive way to get a degree that pays dividends, to leave here debt-free and, if the student decides to transfer to a senior university, keep the overall cost of attending as low as possible,” Neupauer said.