Rising Costs, Student Debt Turn Graduate Degrees Into a ‘Risky’ Proposition, Research Finds

While graduate degrees yield higher incomes overall, ever-rising costs and higher debt loads make postgraduate education a “risky” bet for students, according to a study released Wednesday by Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce.  The report found that graduate degree costs for students tripled from 2000 to 2020 while the median debt principal for student borrowers rose by more than 47% to $50,000. At the same time, job prospects are uneven for degree earners. To protect prospective students, the report authors propose tying institutional eligibility for federally subsidized graduate school loans to tests for earnings premiums and debt-to-earnings ratios.