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The federal government has, in recent years, paid debt collectors close to $1 billion annually to help distressed borrowers climb out of default and scrounge up regular monthly payments. New government figures suggest much of that money may have been wasted.
Nearly half of defaulted student-loan borrowers who worked with debt collectors to return to good standing on their loans defaulted again within three years, according to an analysis by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. For their work, debt collectors receive up to $1,710 in payment from the U.S. Department of Education each time a borrower makes good on soured debt through a process known as rehabilitation. They keep those funds even if borrowers subsequently default again, contracts show. The department has earmarked more than $4.2 billion for payments to its debt collectors since the start of the 2013 fiscal year, federal spending data show.
[...] Officials at the CFPB say the government should reexamine whether the loan program, and the lucrative contracts it bestows on private firms, is working for the millions of Americans struggling to repay their taxpayer-backed student debt.
"When student loan companies know that nearly half of their highest-risk customers will quickly fail, it's time to fix the broken system that makes this possible," said Seth Frotman, the consumer bureau's top student-loan official.
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Monday May 22 2017, @10:36PM
I'll suspect what the Ivy leagues or better schools has is:
* Who you get know. Is your classmate going to be a technician or CEO? guess who can help with a investment.
* Motivation. The people around you will get done instead of moaning.
* People may think about quark force interactions instead of sports.
* Teachers know their subject and perhaps even know how pedagogy.
* Labs are better?
* Better clubs like for electronics? The oscilloscope is not a dusty 100 MHz but 4 channel DSO with 20 Gs/s.
However in the end it's very much about the study environment and what get's into your head. If the environment is bad for learning with stress, lack stimuli, constant noise, shitty attitude etc. It won't work regardless how well polished the website and head office is.