In March, President Trump signed an executive order directing the U.S. Department of Education to expand the data underlying the College Scorecard, the department’s consumer-information tool. Most notably, the order called for the addition of program-level data.
A student uses the College Scorecard in a classroom.Erika Larsen for The Chronicle
On Tuesday, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced that the Scorecard had been updated to include program-level data, additional details on graduation rates, and certificate-granting institutions, among other things. The data are preliminary, and some programs are omitted. The data are from borrowers who completed their degree programs in June 2016 and June 2017.
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In March, President Trump signed an executive order directing the U.S. Department of Education to expand the data underlying the College Scorecard, the department’s consumer-information tool. Most notably, the order called for the addition of program-level data.
A student uses the College Scorecard in a classroom.Erika Larsen for The Chronicle
On Tuesday, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced that the Scorecard had been updated to include program-level data, additional details on graduation rates, and certificate-granting institutions, among other things. The data are preliminary, and some programs are omitted. The data are from borrowers who completed their degree programs in June 2016 and June 2017.
We set about crunching the numbers. Here are four interesting factoids from the new data:
1. More than 70 percent of college degree programs with median debt loads of $100,000 or more were in the health professions and related programs. All programs with median debt loads of this amount were postbaccalaureate.
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2. Average program debt differed across disciplines. For instance, in fire protection, there was only a $5,000 difference between the average debt for a for-profit bachelor’s degree versus a public-college degree in the same field. For other degrees, however, the difference was much bigger. The average loan debt for a private-school graduate with a gerontology bachelor’s degree was $22,068, compared with $41,872 for a degree in that field from a for-profit college.
3. Among all bachelor’s-degree programs, whether public, private, or private for-profit, the field of study with the largest average median debt was theology and religious vocations ($39,019). The field with the smallest average median debt was international and comparative education.
4. In total, 3,970 programs (including just one postbaccalaureate certificate program) boasted a median debt of less than $10,000.
Dan Bauman is a reporter who investigates and writes about all things data in higher education. Tweet him at @danbauman77, or email him at dan.bauman@chronicle.com.
