Here in NZ Bachelor's degrees are usually three years. The first year is not supposed to be exploratory, you should more or less know your major before you start.

A Bachelor of Science might cost $20,000 NZD ($13,000 USD), extra fees are pretty low, textbooks are not cheap but professors usually try to avoid you having to buy them. In your first year you might get away without having to buy a textbook (in the maths departments at least). A Bachelor of Arts would could a few thousand less.

Fully catered accommodation is expensive. Higher end would be $14,000 NZD ($9,200) for a year. Not many students continue in halls of residence past the first year. Staying in a shared flat would cost a LOT less.

A lot of students also live with parents and commute.

The Student Loan is interest free and covers course costs as well as a portion of living costs. Domestic students also can get a Student Allowance of about $220 NZD/week (or more depending on circumstances). The allowance is welfare, not a loan.

Walking away with a degree and $30,000 - $40,000 NZD ($20,000 USD - $26,000 USD) interest free debt is reasonable. Some people will be more, others will be less because they worked part time while studying.

Repayments are taken out of your paycheck (12% of income over $19,670 NZD, so probably 8-11% of total grad compensation per year). There is no incentive to repay it faster due to the lack of interest. Most students I think would have it paid back in 11 years or less. If you learn less than $19,670, you don't have to make any payments.

The catch is you pay 4% interest if you go work overseas. Salaries are higher overseas so you will still win.

There is little to no incentive to declare bankruptcy. I have never even heard of it discussed.

The statistics show the average US student loan dept is around $35k/borrower. However there are some who go to out of state private colleges which can get expensive. And there are for-profit private colleges that are basically scams and rack up significant debt.

* https://www.experian.com/blogs/ask-experian/state-of-student...

Is that the average amount borrowed or the average amount still owed? If the latter I am not sure how useful it is. It would be more useful to know how much students need to borrow today (or in 4 years time).

In NZ the median student debt at end of study is just $17,000 NZD but that includes people dropping out after one year, non-university diploma courses and students whose parents paid for most of it or students who worked while studying and paid as they went.

https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/impact-student-loan-debt

I didn't do a lot of research so may have misread... according to this report, the average graduating debt for a 4 year degree is $29k. (see figure 1)

https://ticas.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/classof2018.pdf

Agree with the numbers in the other response. About $35k NZD if you include the allowance you have to pay back. Some people take that, others don't. Mostly people pay it off as they earn over a period of about 10 years.

I always have a hard time understanding these stories of American kids racking up 100s of thousands in debts. Just doesn't seem like a workable system.

Interesting to learn that the average is far lower than the sensationalism makes it out to be.