NPR had a fascinating interview just this week. The “drowning in debt” folks are NOT the ones who majored in Art History, Latin American Studies, etc., much to the chagrin of the politically motivated groups (and media outlets)who claim otherwise. And it’s not the kids at liberal arts colleges majoring in something they love without a clear plan, as you put it. The “drowning in debt” folks have maxxed out their Pell AND maxxed out their ability to borrow for vocational degrees from for-profit colleges. And in many instances, getting degrees for careers which do NOT require a degree in that area. The statistics they provided were pretty compelling. There is an entire, predatory industry of “higher education outlets” who target low income, first gen kids with offers of “get a free degree and begin working immediately in a high paying career once you graduate”.
The saddest story for me was a woman who was one course short of a degree in computer science. She told the interviewer “I should have been suspicious because the classes were so easy” but she just thought “hey, computer science isn’t as hard as everyone claims”. The final requirement to graduate was an externship at a tech company which the college claimed they would find for her. Except nobody wanted a marginal CS soon-to-be graduate from a for-profit college with no track record. And nobody wanted a marginal CS graduate who was learning 2003-level skills in 2025. So no externship, no degree.
Every time an Attorney General closes one of these scam outfits down in their state, another one pops up. Different name. Same “investors” claiming that they are “disrupting” higher ed. The numbers are staggering- both the number of students who are being duped, AND the total amount of their loans.
These kids are drowning in debt because getting a bachelor’s in “court reporting” or “travel and tourism” or “recreational management” or “sports management” or “applied forensics” does NOT qualify you to become a lawyer, become head of marketing for an airline, run a theme park, negotiate contracts for the NFL, or become a medical examiner, respectively. And these predatory companies know this. They also know that parents want their kids training in something that will allow them to get a great job on Day 1 after graduating. Why major in history (useless major, why learn about the Civil War when you can make a Tiktok?) when a college is offering you the ability to leapfrog over those dummies who are studying those worthless things?