Jon Marcus, Hechinger Report
As the number of undergraduates steadily declines in seeming direct proportion to rising costs, debt and the many other obstacles faced by college students, graduate enrollment is quietly on the upswing. It’s being driven by the better job prospects and higher salaries people think it will bring them — and by a conscious strategy among universities like this one to add graduate programs that produce much-needed revenue. While undergraduates get much of the attention, students who pursued graduate and professional degrees now account for 40 percent of the notorious $1.5 trillion worth of outstanding national student loan debt, the College Board reports; each owes three times more, on average, than an undergraduate, according to the Urban Institute.
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