Washington Monthly - September/October 2024 - 52

with $153,657 in debt, while graduates of the program earn
on average only $56,897 annually five years later. Debt as a
percentage of earnings for the program is 270 percent, which
puts it in the number one spot on our " Worst Clinical, Counseling,
and Applied Psychology " ranking.
Contrast that with the number seven school on the
" Best " ranking in that field, Aurora University, which is located
only 55 miles away from Northwestern. Students at
Aurora's addiction-focused mental health masters (classified
under the same " Clinical, Counseling, and Applied Psychology "
umbrella by the government) graduate with an average
debt of $27,588, close to one-sixth as much as Northwestern
grads, and make 34 percent higher salaries ($76,132) five
years out. Cal State Long Beach, Florida Tech, and CUNY-
Baruch College have master's programs under that same umbrella,
where the ratio of debt to income is at least 10 times
lower than Northwestern. (For more on Northwestern's
predatory behavior, see my story on page 56 of this issue.)
The pattern is the same in other fields of study. A master's
degree in nursing from Yale University might look impressive
on your wall, but it'll burden you with an average
debt of $118,849 when you graduate. For the same degree
from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, you'll borrow
only $23,302, one-fifth as much, and still earn slightly
more than the Yalies ($133,871 versus $128,563).
A master's in social work from the prestigious University
of Southern California will leave you $125,849 in debt
On it.
Ending racial injustice requires all of us
to work together and take real action.
What can you do to help?
Educate yourself about the history of American racism,
privilege and what it means to be anti-racist. Educate yourself
about the history of American racism, privilege and what it means to be anti-racist.
Commit to actions that challenge injustice and make
everyone feel like they belong, such as challenging
biased or racist language when you hear it.
Vote in national and local elections to ensure your
elected officials share your vision of public safety.
Donate to organizations, campaigns and initiatives
who are committed to racial justice.
for the privilege of making $72,091 annually five years later.
With the same credential from San Diego State, you'll make
nearly $4,867 more a year and carry about one-sixth the
debt. You can get a master's in educational administration
at the Ivy League University of Pennsylvania, earn $74,964
a year, and be shackled with $55,857 in debt; or make more
($86,863) and borrow six times less ($8,973) by attending
Miami University-Oxford.
How do elite universities like Northwestern, Yale, USC,
and Penn get away with ripping off students when there
are far better options at other, perfectly respectable colleges?
Because the government lets them. By law, the amount
of federally backed loans students can take out for undergraduate
degrees is capped. But in 2005, a Republican Congress
passed, and President George W. Bush signed, legislation
creating an uncapped federal graduate degree loan program
as part of a budget reconciliation package. Predictably,
the creation of an uncapped program incentivized colleges
to raise tuition rates even faster for master's programs than
for bachelor's programs. Despite representing only 21 percent
of students in higher education, graduate students took
out 47 percent of all federal loans in 2021-22.
Hundreds of colleges have taken advantage of the uncapped
subsidy and lax regulatory environment by starting
up or expanding master's programs, in part to make up
for demographically driven enrollment declines at the undergrad
level. But elite nonprofit colleges have the brand
names students want and so have been able to get away
with charging astronomical tuition for programs that
don't deliver.
Having helped create the problem, Washington needs
to fix it. And there are new Republican-sponsored bills floating
around Capitol Hill to impose caps on federal loans for
graduate programs. But until they pass, the only way prospective
students can avoid making life-altering mistakes is
to arm themselves with good information.
Of course, master's degrees often pay off. Adults with
master's degrees earn, on average, roughly $13,000 more per
year than those who have only a bachelor's degree. They can
be good investments of your time and money-but it all depends
on where you make that investment.
Our rankings are a good place to begin to figure that out.
Let's come together to take action against racism
and fight for racial justice for the Black community.
Visit lovehasnolabels.com/fightforfreedom
But they only show results for some schools and programs.
Data for any we do not include can be found on the Department
of Education's College Scorecard site by searching for
an institution, navigating to " Fields of Study, " clicking " See
All Fields of Study, " and searching for a particular field and
degree level. There you'll find the median debt at graduation
and the median income after five years, which we've used to
construct this ranking. We encourage you to do that for any
program you might be considering, or one your friends or
relatives might be considering. It might save them from decades
of crippling debt.
Marc Novicoff is associate editor at the Washington Monthly.
52 September/October 2024
https://lovehasnolabels.com/
Washington Monthly - September/October 2024

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