How America pays for college

Sallie Mae has conducted How America Pays for College 2012, providing information about the resources American families invest in an undergraduate college education. This study focuses on the planning and payment behaviors in a given academic year, and assesses all of the resources families use, including non-education specific sources of saving and borrowing such as retirement funds or credit cards.

How America Pays for College depicts the average amounts and proportion of total costs paid from each funding source that a “typical” family pays for college. The study focuses on undergraduate students ages 18 to 24.

Compared to other ethnicities, a smaller percentage of Hispanic families said they borrowed money to pay for college.

Here are some charts that illustrate the situation for Hispanic students and parents:

Source: Sallie Mae, How America Pays for College 2012, July 2012.