Shed a tear for the grown adults who took out gigantic federal loans for a master's degree worth nothing
Allahpundit Jul 09, 2021 6:31 PM ET
Carve out some time this weekend for this WSJ piece, one of the best hate-reads I’ve had in ages. It’s long but I promise that it’s worth it.
How often do you a read a major investigative piece in which literally every person mentioned in it sucks?
The Journal pulls back the curtain on a preposterous higher-education scam run by corrupt elite universities like Columbia at the expense of imbeciles who can’t manage a budget and lavishly enabled by the federal government, which of course also can’t manage a budget. During the Bush era, the feds passed a new loan program called Grad Plus to help students who want to pursue a graduate education pay their way. Grad Plus has three distinguishing features. The interest rates on the loans can be quite high, upwards of eight percent. Unlike with undergrad loans, there’s no lending limit so some students borrow well into six figures. And if the loans aren’t paid off in 20-25 years, taxpayers are on the hook for the balance.
The prospect of schools being able to charge young suckers who think they’re the next Spielberg literally any amount they want and know that the feds will cover it up front has created a powerful incentive towards hiking the costs of a master’s degree, which an Ivy League idol like Columbia justifies on grounds that you can’t put a price on its elite credential. To the average aspiring grad student, that logic wouldn’t hack it: You’d want to think very carefully about your future income stream and whether an MFA even from Columbia is worth taking out $100,000 in loans to obtain it. Or $200,000 in loans. Or, in some cases, $300,000 in loans.
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https://hotair.com/allahpundit/2021/07/09/shed-a-tear-for-the-grown-adults-who-took-out-gigantic-federal-loans-for-a-masters-degree-worth-nothing-n401415
