For general methodology notes, view About Us.
Debt-to-Earnings dataset
To build the universe of institutions for the Debt-to-Earnings ratio (D/E) dataset, we began with the College Scorecard data on cumulative median student debt (completers only: grad_debt_mdn), earnings and related cohort counts of students working and not enrolled (6, 8, and 10 years after entry: md_earn_wne_p# and count_wne_p#), minority serving institution designations (hbcu, pbi, annhi, tribal, aanapii, hsi, nanti), and institutions’ predominant degree (preddeg) used for recategorizing sector. The most recently reported data (most recent institution data as of January 19, 2021) were used. Median earnings and related counts data are no longer being updated by the Department of Education so most recent data reflect cohorts from academic years 2007-09 (for 6 years after entry), 2005-07 (8 years), and 2003-05 (10 years). Median cumulative student debt data reflect a pooled cohort from fiscal years 2018-19.
Because many institutions with branch campuses report one set of values for all related institutions that share a 6-digit OPE ID, records were grouped and duplicates were removed when significant elements matched (opeid6, count_wne_p6, grad_debt_mdn, and md_earn_wne_p6). When determining which records among potential duplicate groups would be kept, priority was given to those with 8-digit OPE ID values ending in “00,” then lowest IPEDS Unit ID value.
The three following forms of Debt-to-Earnings ratios were calculated and included in the dataset:
- Gainful Employment Methodology (DE_ann_earn6): following the annual earnings rate rules put forth by the Department in their final rule; in short, calculated as (annual loan payment / annual earnings 6 years after entry). More details here: https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2014-25594/p-1726 .
- Gainful Employment Methodology using Highest Historical Interest Rate (DE_ann_earn6_highinterest): following the same annual earnings rate rules for the above method but using the highest interest rate for federal unsubsidized loans, 6.8%, sourced from the Federal Student Aid https://studentaid.gov/understand-aid/types/loans/interest-rates .
- Simplified DE Methodology (DE_simple6): shorthand method for understanding relationship between debt and earnings, calculated as (cumulative student debt / annual earnings 6 years after entry)
Pass, fail, and zone flag variables were calculated for both Gainful Employment methodologies in following with the final rule put forth by the Department. More details here: https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2014-25594/p-1711
The D/E data were then joined to IPEDS Header (HD2019) data using the combination of OPE ID (8 digit) and IPEDS unit ID to bring in basic institutional characteristics such as name and state.
The resulting combined working data were then joined to the following IPEDS survey data using IPEDS unit ID to add contextualizing data:
- 12-month unduplicated headcount data (EFFY2019) to get total undergraduate enrollment values (efytotlt)
- Student Financial Aid (SFA1819) to get the share of undergraduates receiving federal student loans (ufloanp) and Pell grants (upgrntp)
| Elements | Source | Source Year | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| opeid6 | IPEDS (all) | - | OPE ID (6-digit) |
| unitid | IPEDS (all) | - | IPEDS unit ID |
| instnm | IPEDS HD2019 | 2019 | Institution name |
| stabbr | IPEDS HD2019 | 2019 | State abbreviation |
| sector | College Scorecard | Most Recent Institution-Level (Jan 19, 2021) | Institutional sector reflects the cross of institutional level (2-year, 4-year, less-than-2-year when using the Scorecard's predominant degree variable) and institutional control (public, not for profit, for profit) Pub4yr - Public 4-year or above Pub2yr - Public 2-Year Pub<2yr - Public less-than-2-year NFP4yr - Private nonprofit 4-year or above NFP2yr - Private for-profit 2-year NFP<2yr - Private nonprofit less-than-2-year FP4yr - Private for-profit 4-year or above FP2yr - Private for-profit 2-year FP<2yr - Private for-profit less-than-2-year |
| efytotlt | IPEDS EFFY2019 | 2019 | Grand total of student 12-month for credit enrollment, undergraduate & graduate |
| md_earn_wne_p6 | College Scorecard | Most Recent Institution-Level (Jan 19, 2021) | md_earn_wne_p[yr] = Median earnings of students working and not enrolled [yr] years after entry disc_inc[yr] = md_earn_wne_p[yr] - povg_150 (150% of US Federal poverty guideline for a single person household in 2020) count_wne_p[yr] = Number of students working and not enrolled [yr] years after entry |
| grad_debt_mdn | College Scorecard | Most Recent Institution-Level (Jan 19, 2021) | The median original amount of the loan principal upon entering repayment, graduates only |
| DE_simple6 | Calculated | Simplified formula for average institution-level Debt/Earnings ratio; uses earnings 6yrs after entry DE_simple6 = (grad_debt_mdn / md_earn_wne_p6) | |
| DE_ann_earn6 | Calculated | Annual earnings rate version of the debt to earnings ratio. DE_ann_earn6 = (annual loan payment / md_earn_wne_p6)*100 | |
| DE_ann_earn6_highinterest | Calculated | "_highinterest" version calculates DE just like DE_ann_earn6 except it uses the highest interest rate of federal unsubsidized undergraduates loans from the past 10 years (6.8%) | |
| ufloann | IPEDS SFA1819 | 2019 | Number of undergraduate students awarded federal student loans |
| upgrntp | IPEDS SFA1819 | 2019 | Percent of undergraduate students awarded Pell grants |
| hbcu | College Scorecard | Most Recent Institution-Level (Jan 19, 2021) | Flag for Historically Black College or University |