The U.S. government is supplying new data to help prospective students figure out which colleges offer the best bang for the buck. WSJ's Jason Bellini has The Short Answer.Image: Getty
Most people assume a degree in the arts is no guarantee of riches. Now there is evidence that such graduates also rack up the most student-loan debt.
A Wall Street Journal analysis of new Department of Education data shows that median debt loads at schools specializing in art, music and design average $21,576, which works out to a loan payment of about $248 a month. That is a heavy burden, considering that salaries for graduates of such schools with five or fewer years' experience cluster around $40,000, according to PayScale.com.
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The data also show that graduates of research universities tend to carry less debt than those of liberal-arts colleges. Median debt loads average $19,445 for liberal-arts schools, versus $18,100 for research universities.
The figures are based on the amount of federal education loans in 2010-11; they include those taken out by students and their parents, but consist of only students for whom there is borrowing. That group is growing. Almost 67% of college students who graduated in 2012 had loans, up from 63% a decade ago, estimates Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of FinAid.com, a financial-aid website.
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