Loan Structures Burden Graduates
By Carole Hedden .More than half of A&D professionals under 30 mention student loans as a key factor in career planning. University leaders say that easily half of their students—including the top achievers—are relying on some form of loans or financial aid. Just under 50% of the respondents to Aviation Week's Young Professionals Study—sponsored by NASA and the Aerospace Industries Association—are still paying off loans racked up while earning their degrees, and nearly one-fifth of them owe more than $80,000. David Wormley, dean of Penn State's College of Engineering, says nearly 50% of engineering students with a grade point average above 3.0 have taken loans, and the rate rises to 70% for those with lower GPAs. Leaders from Georgia Institute of Technology, Virginia Tech, Purdue University and California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) report similar statistics ...
