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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 27 2015, @07:39PM
People who go to college and do well aren't typically underserved by the loan industry. They probably qualified for student loans - and thus can establish a credit history by making payments - or had enough family money to pay for it up front and can get family to co-sign any loans they might need. I'm sure there are exceptions, but far more common are the working poor who are living paycheck to paycheck - or worse, living payday loan to payday loan and paying exorbitant rates for the 'privilege.'