http://www.freep.com/story/money/personal-finance/susan-tompor/2016/06/29/college-debt-whats-too-much/86464144/
This survey by Consumer Reports, in partnership with the Center for Investigative Reporting examines student loan levels and college completion. Well worth a read.
The authors write that 38 percent of those with second thoughts about the value of a college degree actually dropped out of college. This group they write were upset about their debt load.
The Detroit Free Press reports that "students who drop out of college are four times more likely default on their student loans than students who graduate, representing 63% of the defaults." (according to Vice President Mark Kantrowitz, Cappex.com).
Nationally it is reported that the graduating class of 2016 had about $38,000 in student loan debt for those with a four year bachelor degree. Cappex.com reports that those numbers are up 6% from last year and that of those graduating in 2016 about 71 percent have some student debt to repay.
Consumer Reports found that "78 percent of the unhappy student loan borrowers say they earn less than $50,000 a year."
Maybe as a nation we need to look more closely at why students do not complete their college careers and what factors led to their dropping out. Time to take a close look at what are colleges and universities are doing to assist students who come to their institutions not as prepared as they should be for getting thru their college programs.
First what are the ACT/SAT scores for the bottom 25 percent of each class and what are the GPAs for the same 25 percent? Should there be mandated level of GPAs and ACT/SAT scores that require university sponsored tutoring and counseling programs?
Often college leaders have written that it is believed that students with a GPA of 2.5 or higher have almost a guaranteed college completion record--excepting family issues, military enlistment. etc., etc.. If that is the case at what point do we say to colleges and universities that you cannot admit a student who is below a 2.3, 2.2 or maybe 2.20 GPA without a guaranteed and approved retention program for those students to get academic and personal guidance and assistance (student retention programs). What ever the right GPA, ACT/SAT score, is we have to stop admitting these students without formal, monitored, measured student retention programs. The retention numbers each year should be reported publicly for all colleges and universities and should be a factor in any state or federal funding or academic accreditation.
Maybe as the Cappex.com officials said, 'we don't have only a student debt problem but we have a student completion problem in this country." I might add we have a lack of an across the board, monitored and measured student retention programs problem.
In the end we all know there are many colleges and universities that are doing an outstanding job of helping people get the chance to get a college degree and get their chance to be part of America's middle class or higher. The problem is not all colleges and universities are doing this and there are not clear enough and regulated/approved student retention program requirements.
Every person in America should have the right to try to improve their academic and intellectual lives--education is the best vehicle to correcting the huge income disparities in our nation. However everyone should have the right to try without such high student loan debt and without some mandated student retention programs.
