Podbit · Planet Money
When you cap federal student aid without providing equivalent grants or scholarships, the most consistent finding in the research is not that students find cheaper schools — they just stop enrolling. Dominique Baker says this pattern holds across the literature and is likely to apply to grad students too.
Where this was said
At 24:50 · chapter starts 21:05
The caps won't hit everyone equally. Preston Cooper at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute has built scatter plots mapping graduate programs against the new loan limits, and his conclusion is that the vast majority of programs fall within the caps already [1] — Preston Cooper "Most grad students already borrow within the new $21,000 annual limit, so only about 30% will be directly affected. But those who are affec…" 20:07 . Only about 30% of grad borrowers will feel the pinch directly — but those who do are concentrated at some of the most expensive name-brand institutions. A Pew Center analysis named NYU and USC as the schools with the most affected borrowers. Cooper's argument is that this is precisely the point: the caps send a market signal to the small number of programs charging two or three times what comparable public universities charge for the same degree. He doesn't promise overnight price cuts, but believes the medium-term pressure will be real. Cory Turner also notes that a handful of schools have already announced they'll lower prices in response.
Preston Cooper at the American Enterprise Institute estimated that new loan caps will directly affect only about 30% of grad school borrowers, since most already borrow within the new limits.
An analysis by the Pew Center found that NYU and USC have the highest numbers of borrowers who will be affected by the new graduate loan caps.
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