Posted on 12/01/2017 9:39:34 AM PST by reaganaut1
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In the next chart, we categorize student loan holders by the selectivity of the college they attended and by the major they pursued. Using Barron’s Profile of American Colleges (2001) ranking of college competitiveness, we classify four-year colleges into two categories: “selective” (colleges ranked “competitive” or above by Barron’s) and “nonselective.” In addition, we classify students into one of four fields, based on their major: “Arts and Humanities” (majors such as languages, sociology, theater), “Business and Law” (economics, legal studies, management), “STEM” (science, technology, engineering, mathematics), and “Vocational” (aviation, cosmetology, welding).
In analysis not reported here, we find that Arts majors have the highest overall default rates, while STEM majors default at the lowest rates. Both Business and Vocational majors default at higher rates than STEM majors, but at rates closer in magnitude to STEM majors than to Arts majors. Next, we separate students not only by major, but also by school selectivity; the chart below presents patterns at age thirty-three. We find that students attending nonselective colleges have higher default rates no matter what they study. Arts majors have the highest default rates regardless of college selectivity, but major matters much more among students at nonselective colleges: the gap in default rates between the best performing major and worst performing major is much smaller (3 percentage points by age thirty-three) among students at selective colleges than among students at nonselective colleges (8 percentage points by age thirty‑three).
Next, to analyze differences with respect to family background, we categorize individuals according to the average 2010 income in the zip code in which they resided at the youngest age we observe them in our data. We divide the panel between individuals from areas with an average income above $55,000 and those from areas with an average income below $55,000
(Excerpt) Read more at libertystreeteconomics.newyorkfed.org ...
I think everyone here could have reached that conclusion without a study.
I will go you one more honest and succinct.
Student debt should be fully dischargable under bankruptcy laws.
That would be a direct approach which would shrink the college economic enterprise. Interestingly, they have already done that in pursuing the many "for profit" colleges that over-promise the value of their training and degrees, usually causing their students to run up huge debts.
But, they have only encouraged non-STEM "studies" majors in accredited colleges to entrap unwitting (and dim witted) students who become long term debt slaves.
Whose bankruptcy? The student's or the nation's?
I could have done this study from my each chair in our family room with my Chromebook and Google
Then, with my personal observations of 2-3 decades of watching idiots getting Instant Unemployment Degrees after wasting 5-7 years getting a worthless degree in the so called liberal arts.
In the meantime these idiots maxed out their student loans for spring breaks and trips to Europe!
So you have faux intellectuals with at least a $100k in student loans and no viable jobs to pay back those loans.
Many in their so called senior years were sent “free” credit cards charging double digit monthly interest rates to really take these people down the debt laden path.
That will effectively end the student loan program.
If that's what you want to do, why not say so?
Thanks to the collegiate-corporate-HR meritocracy racket. virtually every job worth working today requires a degree of some kind, even low level dead end menial jobs.
I can’t go back to jobs that I worked 10 years ago due to the ridiculous requirements dictated by HR departments.
Waaaaaay too many people attending college nowadays and as a result, the education one actually receives has become watered down.
Correction: I meant to say “this was in the 1980s” not this was 1980.
I’m not THAT old. ;-)
I remember the argument when the debt was made non-discharable under bankruptcy. Congress had passed a law requiring retirement programs to be fully funded. Courts held that included retirement programs for government employees. Congress decided not to raise taxes, but to be a larger player in long term student debt, most of which is at high interest rates. The problem was, student debt is the first thing a bankruptcy judge did away with. Obviously, $50,000 for a BA in Gender Studies has no value. Under the law as it stood, government retirement programs could not be viewed as funded if any judge could waive it away. Hence, the law change.
As I understand it, when Student Loan payments are made, the money does not reduce the account balance held by the Fed. Rather, the money is spent by Congress “off the books”. This is a scam.
Incidentally, when I was in college in the early ‘70’s there were a couple of engineering “students” in their fifties. They had never had a job outside of school. They had been students since leaving high school. One night while working in a lab, I asked one of them about it. He was nonchalant. He said, working was for idiots. He liked being a student; the parties, the drugs, etc. He financed the whole thing with government loans. Periodically, he declared bankruptcy and started all over. I am guessing he must have done that a couple of times. Of course, those were different times, but I think the idea of being a professional student has been around for a long, long time.
College is vastly overrated. For those who have the abilities and physical stamina, the skilled trades would be better options for earning a good living without running up student loan balances. Most young people are really not interested in womyn’s studies, LBGTQHIJKLMNOP studies, medieval literature, sanskrit grammar, and similar claptrap.
They want to earn a good living with benefits and the chance for advancement, the greatest of which could be the ability to own a plumbing, HVAC, or electrical contracting company.
College is useful for those who wish to pursue the STEM fields, medicine, or to engage in scholarship for its own sake but this last should possibly backed by independent wealth.
off the books, like making payoffs? Funding Antifa?
College has become the new high school—look up the scandal involving nearly all black Balloo High School in Washington DC.
It was, before Obama.
Private student loans were dischargeable in bankruptcy prior to 2005 and there was a robust private credit market.
This entire smoke and mirrors BS job that they do with this subject. the average debt carried by a student loan is 28,000 - about the cost of new car, which most of the kids probably have. The most likely segment of student debt holder that default on their loan are the ones who didn’t finish. They hold the attitude that, “hey, I didn’t finish, so I don’t have to pay”.
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