U.S. News & World Report has chosen two of the Institute for College Access & Success' projects College InSight and the Project on Student Debt for their top ten list of the best college websites!
See the entire list here
]]>Married Borrowers: When married couples both have federal student loans, they will no longer face higher IBR payments than their unmarried peers. For married borrowers who file their taxes jointly, lenders will factor in the couple's total federal student loan debt, as well as their total income, to calculate payments. Originally, IBR did not recognize that joint income has to cover both spouses' federal loan payments, resulting in payment requirements up to twice what two equivalent single people would have to pay.
Baseline Debt: IBR eligibility will be based on either the balance when the loan first entered repayment or on the current loan amount, whichever is greater. This will allow borrowers whose loan balances have increased (often due to accrued interest during periods of deferment or forbearance) to qualify based on what they actually owe.
]]>
U.S. News & World Report has chosen two of the Institute for College Access & Success' projects College InSight and the Project on Student Debt for their top ten list of the best college websites!
See the entire list here
]]>Debbie Frankle Cochrane
Program Director
The Institute for College Access & Success
The Institute for College Access & Success' president Lauren Asher was a week-long guest columnist for the New York Times "Bucks" blog, answering questions from Times readers about student debt and loan repayment.
Answers About Student Loans: Part 1
Answers About Student Loans: Part 2
Answers About Student Loans: Part 3
Answers About Student Loans: Part 4
Answers About Student Loans: Part 5
In College, Inc., correspondent Martin Smith investigates the promise and explosive growth of the for-profit higher education industry. Through interviews with school executives, government officials, admissions counselors, former students and industry observers, this film explores the tension between the industry --which says it's helping an underserved student population obtain a quality education and marketable job skills -- and critics who charge the for-profits with churning out worthless degrees that leave students with a mountain of debt.]]>
We at the Project on Student Debt will continue to analyze these data in detail in the coming months, but one fact from the NCES report jumped out at me - graduation rates for first-time full-time students at for-profit four-year schools fell by 35% while the graduation rates at other four-year schools stayed level.1 Only 22% of bachelor’s or equivalent degree-seekers who entered for-profit four-year schools in 2002 obtained their degree within 6 years (150% of normal time), compared to 34% of bachelor’s degree seekers entering for-profit four-year schools in 2000. The for-profit school graduation rate was already dramatically lower than the public and private non-profit graduation rates, but now it is less than half the rate at either of the other types of four-year colleges. See the table below for detailed figures:
1. U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), Graduation Rates component, Spring 2009. Tables 6 and 7 in “Enrollment in Postsecondary Institutions, Fall 2008; Graduation Rates, 2002 and 2005 Cohorts; and Financial Statistics, Fiscal Year 2008.” Note that these graduation rates do not include transfers-out. This table has been updated to reflect NCES revisions to Table 7.
Diane Cheng
Research Associate
There are several theories as to why community college students in California are applying for federal financial aid at low rates. Some say it’s because CCC students are more likely to attend part-time, and that part-time students everywhere are less likely to apply for aid than full-time students. Some say that Californians have higher incomes, and aren’t eligible for as much aid as students elsewhere. Yet, when looking at a variety of subgroups of community college students in California and other states – including full-time students and those who are likely eligible for Pell Grants – CCC students are still less likely to apply for federal aid than comparable students in the rest of the country.
Reasonable people can disagree about what causes this problem and how to solve it, but the bottom line is that California needs more college graduates and a stronger economy – and can’t afford to pass up hundreds of millions of dollars that could go towards supporting both.
Laura Szabo-Kubitz
Policy Associate
Since the last rulemaking session, the topic of ‘gainful employment’ has gotten a lot of attention. Put simply, it’s the idea that college programs designed to prepare students for specific kinds of jobs (e.g., auto mechanics, chefs) actually do, and that the majority of students who attend those programs aren’t left high and dry at the end of the day with only a lot of debt and a worthless credential to show for it.
Some people are calling the Department's proposals a form of “price control”, saying that they would effectively cap the amount students could borrow, which would in turn cap the tuition colleges could charge for these programs. Putting aside the question of the Department’s specific proposal for now, since when did merely questioning the return on investment – both the student’s and taxpayer’s – become an attack on the free market? For more on just why we need better rules in this area, check out this new item from Higher Ed Watch: Students vs. Shareholders at Publicly Traded Career Colleges.
Debbie Cochrane
Program Director
1. If the legislature raised community college fees from $26 per credit to Kaplan’s discounted cost, it would bring in eight times more tuition revenue, or almost $3 billion more in 2008-09. With that kind of money, I imagine the community colleges could afford to educate their own students. (Just to be clear, we’re not advocating this approach.)
2. Students who take advantage of this agreement can then transfer into one of Kaplan University’s bachelor degree programs. How about the students – about 64,000 in 2008-09 – who transfer to the California State University or University of California? What assurances do they have that their Kaplan credits will count towards transfer to CSU or UC? With Kaplan’s tuition topping UC’s by 64 percent and CSU’s by 222 percent, does taking advantage of this agreement with Kaplan lock students into higher priced education beyond community college as well?
The state promises affordable college access and then points students to pricy for-profit colleges to get community college credits. Did someone somehow get two of the Governor’s 2010 goals – privatizing prisons and protecting higher education – mixed up?
- Debbie Frankle Cochrane
Program Director
Click here to read the California Community College and Kaplan University Press Release
]]>| Daily Show Full Episodes | Political Humor | Health Care Crisis |
The discussion on student loan reform begins at 4:45.
]]>
For the third year in a row, Governor Schwarzenegger has proposed cutting a key component of the Cal Grant program. This is a cut that students and our state cannot afford. Just two days ago the governor said in his ‘State of the State’ speech, ‘We can no longer afford to cut higher education.’ Yet he now proposes to cut a critical source of higher education funding for high achieving, low-income students already struggling to keep college within reach.
The Governor would suspend all new competitive Cal Grants, which go to students who apply after the March 2 deadline, and/or graduated from high school more than a year before applying for a grant. There are already a limited number of these grants available, and demand for them jumped 42 percent in 2009-10, when 245,400 qualified applicants vied for just 22,500 competitive Cal Grants.
The San Jose Mercury News covered this issue in their weekend edition. Read the article here.
]]>
The New York Times profiled our new report Student Debt and the Class of 2008 on their education blog The Choice. Our latest analysis of student debt by state found college seniors who graduated in 2008 carried an average of $23,200 in student loan debt. Meanwhile, unemployment climbed from an already challenging 7.6 percent in the third quarter of 2008 to 10.6 percent in 2009 – the highest third-quarter rate for college graduates aged 20 to 24 this decade. Debt levels vary widely by state, with some Midwestern and New England states facing the highest debts.
Click here to comment on the blog post
Other outlets that have covered our report include:
• CNN.com
]]>
Today we are launching a unique new web site for higher education data and research. College InSight (www.college-insight.org) will be a valuable resource for anyone interested in college affordability, student debt, economic and racial diversity, student success, and other important issues in higher education. The site replaces and improves upon our previous campus-level data site, EconomicDiversity.org.
College InSight provides user-friendly profiles with detailed information for almost 5,000 U.S. colleges and universities, and aggregates data to create totals and averages for states, types of schools, and other groupings. Compare colleges, states, and more based on important issues:
• Affordability: tuition and the total cost of attendance; how students cover costs through federal, state, and college grant aid, as well as student loans; average student debt levels; colleges' use of need- and merit-based aid.
• Diversity: data on the racial and ethnic diversity of both students and faculty; indicators of student economic diversity, such as the percentage of undergraduates who received federal Pell Grants and the income distribution of students who applied for financial aid.
• Student success: graduation rates and the number of degrees and certificates awarded.
Please check out the site, and use it to find information the next time you're looking for college-level data. We will be continually making improvements to the site, and welcome your feedback and suggestions.
]]>