CSUN students. Photo by Lee Choo.

One of the most pressing issues today surrounding a college education is how students will pay for it. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that the total student-loan debt in the U.S. is approaching the trillion-dollar mark.

According to the Institute of College Access and Success, the national average for college loan debt is $26,000. California ranks as the third-lowest state average with  $18,879, which exactly mirrors how much the average debt for a CSU graduate is. That number drops even lower for California State University, Northridge students, to $16,172.

“The CSU prides itself on being able to provide access to higher education for students,” Stephanie Thara, web communications specialist for the CSU, told the Daily Sundial’s Melissa Simon. “We do that through our low tuition and offering a robust financial aid package.”

The Sundial points to a few reasons why the aid packages for CSUN students help them achieve a lower debt burden, including the generous Cal Grant aid program and the fact that CSU’s are the largest recipient of Pell awards in the country. Together with the competitive tuition rates at CSUN, it makes a difference for students like Tania Liu ’08 (Marketing) when they decide where to spend some of the most important years of their lives.

“The money I received through the Cal grant and Pell grant were some of the reasons I decided to attend CSUN and not UCLA,” Liu told the Sundial.

For more: Study Finds CSU Students Among Those with Lowest Loan Debt [Daily Sundial]

Financial Aid