Washington, D.C. – Today, the Texas Public Policy Foundation published a new, first-of-its-kind tool to help students evaluate earning potential and debt by college major.
“This revolutionary tool will help students and their parents make informed decisions about post-secondary options and their long-term effects on their debt and earning potential,” said Andrew Gillen, Ph.D. economist and senior policy analyst with the Center for Innovation in Education at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. “In addition to helping students and their families, this tool will assist college leadership in identifying programs at their schools that do not prepare students to exit their program with solid financial potential. It will also assist policymakers in designing accountability systems to ensure that taxpayer funds are not being used to fund programs that do not benefit students nor the economy.”
The tool, based on the College Scorecard’s new earning and debt data for over 216,000 college programs, looks at universities, academic fields, level of degree, median and mean debt from Direct Subsidized and Unsubsidized Loans and Graduate Direct PLUS Loans, annual earnings one year after graduation for students who graduated between 2014 and 2016, monthly loan payment, debt to earning ratio, and gainful employment equivalent status.
To view the webtool, please visit:
https://www.texaspolicy.com/college-earnings-and-debt/
To read the latest op-ed by Andrew on the webtool, please visit: