Coping with college costs

Nationally, two-thirds of undergraduates exit college owing student loans, and on average, they owe $20,000, FinAid.org publisher Mark Kantrowitz said.

In Utah, average debt for a four-year college graduate is a little over $15,000, up from $11,500 a decade ago, the Utah authority reports. It's probably higher, as the $15,000 includes only authority-held federal Stafford loans, not federal PLUS loans for parents or private student loans.

Fewer lenders

Lynee Ritchie hopes her situation will be different.

A senior at the math and science academy, she has a $1,500 scholarship to Utah State University but says she'll need $5,000 to cover room, board and books. She plans to apply for more scholarships.

"My parents want to help, but they're just not able to," said Ritchie, a first-generation college student who wants to become an engineer. "But I don't want to end up in debt when I'm finished. I don't want to be stressed with it."

She might not have a choice, but she will be facing a more difficult environment for securing loans.

In Utah, Zions Bank, which had $71 million in gross loan volume last fiscal year, dropped its federal student-loan program in March. The bank is in talks with the Utah higher-education authority to create a private student-loan program and has not ruled out again offering federally backed student loans.

Meanwhile, Utah's other top six lenders — Wells Fargo, America First Credit Union, US Bank, Mountain America Credit Union, Utah Community Credit Union and JPMorgan Chase — so far are hanging in there, said the state authority's executive director, David Feitz.

But as lenders nationwide exit the federal student-loan business, national experts fear fewer students will be able to get loans, which might force them to avoid going to college or to drop out.

In recent weeks, the Utah authority announced it would make sure everyone in Utah who qualifies will get federal aid this coming academic year. This past week, the U.S. Department of Education said it would purchase some of the lenders' student loans made for the 2008-09 academic year, allowing lenders to free up money to issue new loans. The move is planned to be cost-neutral to the government, and expected to retain the nation's biggest lenders.

Even so, students are likely to keep seeking private student loans. And that makes some Utah financial-aid experts nervous.

Private-loan concerns

The business of making private student loans is a $17.3 billion industry that since 2000 has grown at an annual clip of 27 percent, the College Board reports.