Most Debt: National Universities - Doctoral

So I'm looking at the U.S. News & World Report rankings and one page intrigued me. It's concerned with how much debt students have when leaving school and they've broken it down into specific groups. The #1 National University where doctoral students leave with the most debt is......


The Union Institute!

The average amount of debt is $30,000 (for those who take on debt; in this case, 72% of the students). Other notable school to make the list was Nova Southeastern University (23k).

Interestingly, these students carry more debt than graduates of MIT and Stanford. Probably a large part of this is due to the difference in the amount of funds available for scholarships, assistantships, and the like. Still, rather interesting.



Tom Nixon

 

Of note is that NSU also has some expensive traditional offerings that may add to its debt which include the law school, dental school, and medical school. Union is all short res.

I would agree that a lot of the bigger schools have greater endowments and more assistance available to students.

John

 

I don't think it's my calling to get a doctorate and, frankly, I don't think I'm smart enough. However, at this website, I keep seeing all these viable options for pursuing a doctorate.

 

Another possible reason for DL doctoral schools making the list is the non-availability of TA jobs for doctoral candidates. Most residential doctoral programs I've looked at have that option, which pays and/or reduces tuition, sometimes significantly.


Bruce

 

USNews' 'America's Best Colleges' is concerned with undergraduate education, right?

In the case of adolescent undergraduates, don't parents commonly contribute to meeting their child's college expenses? But an adult student is going to have to meet the costs him or herself. You would expect the latter to have greater debt.

My guess is that this "parent effect" is the largest contributer to the difference in debt load. If I'm right, you would expect to see debt load have a strong negative correlation to percentage of undergraduates in the 18-21 age group.

Are we only talking about undergraduate debt, or total aggregate debt for everyone, graduate as well as undergraduate? In the latter case you would expect to see the disparities magnified by the fact that many research universities subsidize the majority of their doctoral students, in effect paying them (minimally) to earn their degrees. Few, if any, of the DL programs do that.

 

Re: Re: Most Debt: National Universities - Doctoral

The post was specifically about debt related to doctoral studies (Note title of thread). The 30k for Union was only for the doctorate.

I liked how they calculated the numbers. They did not include students who took on no debt load, but they did tell you the percentage of students who did. In Union's case, a quite high 72%. Of those 72%, the average was $30,000.



Tom Nixon

 

Listen, me again, if you say that you're not that smart...who am I to argue? but I've had some college professors who were definitely not the sharpest knives in the drawer. There may be hope for you yet!
Jack

 

A doctorate will not aide me in reaching my lifelong dream, so why subject myself to the indignity of all that rigorous coursework as a doctoral student?

Also, I may not be smart enough to get a doctorate, but I'm smart enough to know when to call it quits!

 

Touro University International has a graduate assistant program offering a tuition discount.

 

Tom and all - the point here is the way that doctoral education gets funded. Part-time DL programs are almost all tuition driven - students pay for their education. Most traditional students are paid low wages (often $15k or less) as teaching or research assistants and are given their tuition for "free".

The comparison is missing a key ingredient. Most Union and NSU students are employed full time - at industry pay scales. Sure they have debt loads - but they don't take a $50-$70k drop in pay to be a full-time grad student. Of course they also don't get the benefits of being a full-time students - such as close access to full-time faculty.

This is one of a number of key differences between traditional and DL doctoral programs.

Regards - Andy

 

> So I'm looking at the U.S. News & World Report rankings
> and one page intrigued me. It's concerned with how much
> debt students have when leaving school and they've broken
> it down into specific groups. The #1 National University
> where doctoral students leave with the most debt is......
>
> The Union Institute! (30k)
> ....
> Nova Southeastern University (23k).
>
> Interestingly, these students carry more debt than
> graduates of MIT and Stanford. Probably a large part
> of this is due to the difference in the amount of funds
> available for scholarships, assistantships, and the like.
> Still, rather interesting.

It's very interesting, but not surprising. Both of these
schools are non-traditional and neither is a reasearch
institute, i.e., faculty evaluated on published contributions
to the common body of knowledge in their discipline.

Where did Golden State rank?

Dick Adams

 

Student loan borrowing statistics for Doctoral and Proffession school students.

http://www.acenet.edu/resources/reports/student_borrow_90s.pdf

Professional degree recipients in fields such as law, medicine, and
dentistry, who account for 14 percent of graduate degree earners but only 3 percent of all degree recipients, are the most likely of all student categories to borrow. They amass, by far, the
greatest federal student loan debt. At public institutions, 87 percent of first-professional graduates took out student loans and the median amount they borrowed was $61,417. At private
institutions, the percentage of graduates who borrowed is similar (83 percent of graduates), but the median amount borrowed is considerably higher ($73,533). These borrowing levels result in
monthly payments of $713 and $854 for graduates of public and private institutions, respectively. Among all degree types, professional students median loan amount has increased the most rapidly during the 1990s, almost tripling since 1992–93 in current dollars. The vast majority of first-professional students complete degrees in law, medicine, and dentistry, fields that
traditionally result in higher than average incomes. Further, professional schools are well aware of these borrowing patterns and provide extensive debt and general financial
management information and counseling for their students. Nonetheless, because the amount these students borrow has increased so rapidly, research is needed to determine
whether graduates personal or career decisions are affected by their level of indebtedness.

Doctoral students, who represent 8 percent of 1999–2000 graduate degree earners but only 2 percent of all degree recipients, were less likely to graduate with student loan
debt than those who earned master 's degrees. Half of these students took out loans and borrowed a median amount of $24,078. While still relatively low (considering the amount of time
doctoral students spend in school), this amount grew substantially during the 1990s. The payment associated with the median amount borrowed by doctorate earners has more than
doubled in current dollars from $130 in 1992–93 to $280 in 1999–2000. This amount is equivalent to 8 percent of the average salary of all assistant professors, regardless of field.6 For
those in fields that pay less than the national average, repaying this median amount could prove burdensome.

 

Re: Re: Most Debt: National Universities - Doctoral

One thing to bear in mind at both Union and NSU as well as similar schools is that you have a high percentage of folks in the programs who are not making "industry" pay scales. Perhaps true in computer science or business, but not true in education, social work, etc. For the public school teacher earning a Ph.D. in Education this is a very different scenario.



Tom Nixon