Thursday, August 11, 2011

No Student Loans for Low-Pay Degrees

In 2015, if a private college can't show that at least 35% of graduates with a given degree can pay back their loans, students entering that major won't be eligible for student loans. Pretty smart program.

Not surprisingly, private colleges are upset about it - they want that free money to keep people entering majors they know don't lead many kids to successful careers.

It would be nice if a law went farther, and required students entering a major or considering majors to be informed of:
  • Average employment rate
  • Average employment rate within the chosen field
  • Average salary in 1 year and 5 years
  • Average time to repay
  • Average delinquency rate
of past graduates as a whole. It's fine if people want to say they went to college for intangible hard-to-measure reasons, but when it's putting you in a tangible $100,000+ in debt, it's time to be serious.

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