203 – SPEED: Topics in Statistical Methods and Applications, Part 2
Differences in Student Debt Among Demographic Groups in Those Recently Graduating with a Bachelors Degree 2011--2012
Bailey Ingraham Lopresto
Christiana Care-Value Institute
A bachelor's is considered one of the basic ways to improve an individual's increase of long-term earnings. For many fields, a bachelor's is required to be taken seriously as a candidate for desirable employment, even entry level. The amount of debt to obtain a degree also has major impacts on future earnings, savings, and investment in retirement. Analyses have looked at initial income in recent graduates and described the harsh impacts of lower income for women and minorities on repaying what was assumed equal debt upon graduation. This analysis questions the assumption of equal debt burden among demographic groups. A discrepancy in debt burden between demographic groups indicates disparities and disadvantages in achieving similar financial success. This study focuses on two major outcomes: Average student debt per borrower and proportion of each demographic group receiving loans for those bachelor graduates from a 4-year college in Virginia. Outcomes will be compared between men, women, Caucasian and Minority subgroups using Bayesian methods and cluster modeling at the college level. We will evaluate our hypothesis by calculating credible intervals around the outcomes.