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Computers aren't just doing hard math problems and showing us cat videos. Increasingly, they judge our character. Maybe we should be grateful.
A company in Palo Alto, Calif., called Upstart has over the last 15 months lent $135 million to people with mostly negligible credit ratings. Typically, they are recent graduates without mortgages, car payments or credit card settlements.
Those are among the things that normally earn a good or bad credit score, but these people haven't been in the working world that long. So Upstart looks at their SAT scores, what colleges they attended, their majors and their grade-point averages. As much as job prospects, the company is assessing personality.
The idea, validated by data, is that people who did things like double-checking the homework or studying extra in case there was a pop quiz are thorough and likely to honor their debts.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/07/26/using-algorithms-to-determine-character/
[Other Companies Involved With Similar Programs]: ZestFinance , Workday
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Francis on Monday July 27 2015, @07:05PM
There's also little or no oversight on the loans and once you've got them they can't be discharged in bankruptcy procedings. Which means that once they say that you owe them money, it's basically impossible to get rid of the "debt" through the normal means. You have to pay them whether or not the money is owed.
The local comunity college is still claiming that I owe them money. It took them 6 years to send the initial bill alleging the debt and they have yet to provide any evidence or documentation that the debt ever existed. But, because you can't take the state to small claims court, I lost access to my transcripts. Thankfully, I stayed in school and was able to complete two more levels of education, so nobody's going to question the existence of the certification. I could even leave it off entirely, but I'll "owe" the money for all eternity. The troll didn't even list it on my credit history so I can't even sue for that.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 27 2015, @08:47PM
> There's also little or no oversight on the loans and once you've got them they can't be discharged in bankruptcy procedings.
That is a common myth. It is hard, but not impossible, to convince a bankruptcy court to wipe them out. [usnews.com]
(Score: 1) by goose on Tuesday July 28 2015, @06:07AM
There's also little or no oversight on the loans and once you've got them they can't be discharged in bankruptcy procedings.
So? Take on normal debt (credit card, personal loan, overdraft, etc) and use that to pay off the student loan. Now the debt you owe *can* be discharged easily.