The Biden administration is pursuing two higher education policies through a series of rulemaking processes that aim to make higher education more affordable and less risky for students. One policy focuses on the system's back end by helping students repay their loans, and the other focuses on the front end by cutting off access to federal aid for…

Majoring in business typically pays off. While graduates' earnings and federal student loan debt vary by institution and degree level, the majority of business programs lead to median earnings that are roughly 10 times graduates' debt payments two years after program completion. "The Most Popular Degree Pays Off: Ranking the Economic Value of…

Based on combined data from Baccalaureate & Beyond (B&B:16/17), Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), and Barron's Profiles of American Colleges, this study utilizes zero-inflated beta regression methods and analyzes individual and institutional factors that predict debt burden by gender. Results show that women are less…

Five years after our 2019 analysis of student borrowing rates across the University of California (UC) system, TICAS partnered with the University of California Student Association (UCSA) again to evaluate the state of affordability and student debt for undergraduates at the UC, and their implications for student success. While our analysis finds…

This dissertation consists of two essays at the intersection of the economics of education and inequality. The first chapter analyzes how increasing levels of student debt affect career and housing choices of bachelor's degree recipients in the United States. Using within-cohort across-school variations in financial aid policies, it shows that…

Given the facts that women still earn significantly less than men, that most American students rely on loans to attend college, that tuition in higher education has increased, and that women have to take more students loans than men, can we still claim that we are closing the gender gap? Do females have more burdens to pay off their student loans…

This current dissertation used case study (Yin, 2018) to examine United States female college students' perceptions of their financial literacy, especially with respect to their debt accumulation and the gender wage gap, at a public, 4-year institution in New Jersey. It answered the following research questions: How are student debt, financial…

When the Obama administration implemented the first gainful employment (GE) rule in 2014 to protect students from education credentials that lead to unaffordable debts, virtually all programs at public institutions passed the test. The Biden administration is developing its own GE rule after the Trump administration repealed the Obama-era rule. A…

American students graduate from college with tens of thousands of dollars in debt, leading to substantial repayment burdens and potentially inefficient shifts in spending patterns and career choices. A political trend towards austerity coupled with the rising student debt make the effective allocation of federal higher education resources and…

Does the gender pay gap affect women's ability to repay their student debt? This study investigates the extent to which an income contingent scheme benefits women because of their individual earnings. Using the Australian Household, Income, and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey, gender differences in debt repayment behaviour over the past two…

We generate selection-adjusted NPV and IRR estimates for a bachelor's degree in the U.S. which account for time-to-graduation, debt financing and tuition levels. We find that a college degree is generally worthwhile, but the private value of the investment is a declining function of time-to-graduation. Selection-adjustments show that for students…

Student debt is still rising for bachelor's degree recipients. In 2013, seven in 10 (69%) graduating seniors at public and private nonprofit colleges had student loans. These borrowers owed an average of $28,400 in federal and private loans combined, up two percent compared to their peers in 2012. Debt at graduation varies greatly by state and by…

This is an update to the report "Deeper in Debt: Women and Student Loans." Americans today carry $1.54 trillion in student loan debt. That number has more than doubled over the last decade--increasing at nearly six times the rate of inflation. Women are particularly burdened, holding nearly two-thirds of all outstanding loans--around…

"Student Debt and the Class of 2014" is the tenth annual report on the student loan debt of recent graduates from four-year colleges. It documents the latest rise in student loan debt and finds considerable variation among states as well as colleges. It also includes a new analysis of how debt at graduation has changed over the last…

Over the course of the past few decades student loans have become an increasingly common means of paying for a college education. Most students who complete a college program now take on student loans, and the amount of student debt that students assume has increased along with the price of attending college. At this time about 44 million…