Twenty years is a long time and I fear the implied selection mechanism embedded in that time horizon. At the margin I would expect this to attract people who don’t have a vivid mental image of the distant future. Furthermore the terms of the program discriminate against those who expect high earnings or for that matter those who expect to finish. In other words, the drop out rate of the marginal students here may be relatively high. And what are the payback terms for dropouts? Do they get off scot free? Pay proportionately for what they finished? Pay much much less to reflect their lower expected wages?
This captures my intuition. English and Sociology majors will choose this, not Math majors and Computer Science.
I had heard that Yale had experimented with a similar program. The problem is the distribution. It sounds great for the median student. The low end don't make enough to pay their way. The high end make a ton of money, and push back on paying. In Yale's case they may not have had all the forceful levers of the state. (And Yale wouldn't want to push too hard on the top 1%, alienating their best alums)
This captures my intuition. English and Sociology majors will choose this, not Math majors and Computer Science.
I had heard that Yale had experimented with a similar program. The problem is the distribution. It sounds great for the median student. The low end don't make enough to pay their way. The high end make a ton of money, and push back on paying. In Yale's case they may not have had all the forceful levers of the state. (And Yale wouldn't want to push too hard on the top 1%, alienating their best alums)