The idea of pursuing a graduate degree is to supercharge your lifetime earnings, but some students come out of their programs buried in debt and unable to earn enough to pay down their interest, allowing their loan balances to snowball, a newFive years after graduation, students from about one-third of graduate school programs owe more on their loans than they initially borrowed, according to the new study from the HEA Group.
"We have little accountability around graduate programs," Itzkowitz told CBS MoneyWatch."We've heard anecdotal total stories about students leaving with massive amount of debts and not very high earnings," he said. "It means that grads are not making payments that are large enough to at least cover the minimum payment," he noted."What that also means is that they now owe more than the amount that they originally borrowed five years prior."Among the 1,661 institutions analyzed, students at 528, or 32%, owed more on their loans five years after graduation than they had first borrowed. The worst offenders are for-profit and private non-profit institutions, the analysis found.
For instance, Walden grads with psychology PhDs earn about $72,000 after receiving their degree, but typically also carry debt of $175,000 — meaning that they owe two and a half times as much as they earn annually.