N.C . State’s 2010 graduates were faced with an average debt of $19,988, according to the November report from the Project on Student Debt.

With the current suffering economy and rising tuition, it has become increasingly difficult for students to pay back their debt. University Cashier’s Office and professors qualified the information and gave students suggestions on financial management.

Debt rates vary widely around the state with the UNC-Greensboro averaging $23,772, Appalachian State University averaging $16,130 and Elizabeth City State University averaging only $3,846 for that year.

Despite having one of the higher debt loads, NCSU tied UNC-Chapel Hill with the lowest percentage of need-based Pell Grant recipients that year at only 18 percent.

However, Julie Mallette , the associate vice provost and director of scholarships and financial aid, said the number of recipients and volume of aid awarded to NCSU students continues to increase each year.

“For 2010-2011, approximately 23,000 N.C . State students, including graduate students and College of Veterinary Medicine students, received … approximately $289 million,” Mallette said.

Despite those numbers, there are still instances where students cannot manage to get a student loan or pay back ones they have.

Martha Andre, collections manager for the University Cashier’s Office, sees this happening in the increase of deferments – the delay of payment on loans.

“We definitely see, with this economy, a lot more students applying for deferments. They’ve gotten in touch with us in time before they actually reach that stage [of defaulting] and you reach that stage when you become eight months past due,” Andre said.

Still, some NCSU students will end up defaulting completely on their loans.

For federal Perkins loans, the default rate for 2010-11 students was 5.16 percent, whereas for the previous year it was only 3.46 percent.

The most recent cohort default rate was a much better 2.2 percent for NCSU students, according to Mallette .

“[That] is well below the 6.0 percent state default rate and national default rate of 8.8 percent  for that year,” Mallette said.

The Cashier’s Office promotes students making a budget so they will not be among those who have defaulted.

“Look at the things that are absolute necessities and things that absolutely have to be paid,” Andre said. “Your student loans have to be paid back. They are reported to credit bureaus and having that negative credit history on your credit report is going to hurt you down the road when you’re trying to buy a house, buy a car, or anything like that.”

Some students have trouble finding loans to start with because lenders perceive the default rate for students to be high, according to associate professor in finance Karlyn Mitchell.

“Lenders know very well that if they charged students 30 percent interest rates that students who’d actually take that loan are guaranteed to default on them. So what they do is they don’t lend at all. It’s one of these instances when the market doesn’t work,” Mitchell said.

For those receiving loans, paying them off is complicated by the job search, according to Andre.

“They either haven’t found a job, so they’re unemployed, or they’re underemployed, meaning they’re still working as a waiter or waitress. They’re basically still at the job they had while they were in school and they haven’t really found that magic career job yet,” Andre said.

But Mitchell is seeing improvements in students getting jobs lined up upon graduation.

“The loan situation for students [isn’t] going to improve dramatically for the next 12 months or so. Although I do think there are indications the economy is picking up because what I know from talking to students in my classes, is that students are getting ready to graduate, they are getting jobs, employers are talking about hiring,” Mitchell said.

NCSU’s Board of Trustees approved the $330 tuition increase Friday for in-state undergraduates next year, just under the 6.5 percent cap for tuition increases. They also voted to activate the University’s one-time catch-up option, meaning tuition and fees will top $10,000 per year in five years.

With tuition rates on the rise, students will be facing more debt—up to $27,000 if they max out Federal Direct Loans over four years, according to Mallette.

 ”If students take longer than four years to graduate, they could hit the limit of $31,000 [on Federal Direct Loans] before they graduate,” Mallette said.

Mitchell said students should pay attention to projected incomes when making education choices.

 ”You want to find the cheapest education that you can find that will give you the highest possible lifetime income,” Mitchell said.