As graduation nears, the average Penn State senior has more problems than finding a job -- about 20,000 more problems.

Coming in at $19,700, student debt at Penn State is well above the national average for four-year public colleges. Lauren Asher, associate director of The Institute for College Access and Success (TICAS), said www.economicdiversity.org was established to help students make such comparisons.

"The goal is to provide information and transparency at different types of colleges and universities," she said. "People can better understand income and diversity at schools and get the answers they need."

The Web site contains information for more than 2,000 colleges and universities, comparing them with 128 data elements, including student debt averages, grants and applicants for financial aid.

Penn State University Park ranked slightly above the national average on student debt numbers in the 2003-04 school year, Edie Irons, TICAS program associate, said.

The average Penn State University Park student graduated that year with $19,700 debt, and 70 percent of students had some amount of debt when they left.

The national average for all colleges and universities was $19,200, but the average for four-year public institutions was $17,250, according to a survey by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).

Seventy percent of students at all Penn State campuses combined applied for federal aid. According to NCES, the national average for four-year public institutions was only 62.4 percent.

"It makes sense for out-of-state students at Penn State," Justin Heisey (freshman-biology) said. "I'm paying about $30,000 a semester, not including food. Penn State is the most expensive public school in the nation."

Penn State spokesman Geoff Rushton said tuition is the reason for the higher debt among Penn State students.

"The rising cost of tuition will lead to higher debt anywhere for students," he said. "This is of paramount importance to the administration looking to keep it down."

Kerry Roman, who will be a freshman at University Park in the fall, said the above-average debt did not scare her away from Penn State.

"It doesn't affect my decision," she said. "Penn State is still the cheapest school I looked at."

At the University of Pittsburgh, 59 percent of students graduated with some type of debt, averaging about $14,472.

Lincoln University ranked the highest among Pennsylvania's four-year public institutions, with an average of $25,000 debt per student.

Asher said the majority of the data comes from the U.S. Department of Education, where the average person might have trouble sorting through the facts. She said the data will be updated when it becomes available.

She said she cautions students about making financial judgements simply on the data because families not applying for financial aid do not have to report their financial status to the school.

The Web site is a project by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, which provides grants to "address the most serious social and environmental issues facing society," according to its mission statement.