Nah, the asteroid just has to mainly take out the Washington DC area really. Not even an entire state. With ensuing chaos the last thing you will ever have to worry about, in your lifetime, is student depts.

Now saying that, a lot of innocent people live there and it would be an absolute tragedy if an asteroid were to hit that area. I'm just stating, destruction of the earth, even a major portion of the US landmass, wouldn't even be necessary.... lol