
Mapping Student Debt - jpmattia
http://mappingstudentdebt.org/#/map-1-an-introduction
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myth_buster
It just looks like student debt is correlated to population density[0] and
inversely correlated to median income [1].

The difference between the delinquency map and average loan balance maps shows
that people from places with low median income are taking lower loans but are
still struggling to pay it back perhaps due to lack of jobs.

I do have concerns regarding the scale used.

[0] [http://utahlandowners.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/MAP-
U_S...](http://utahlandowners.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/MAP-U_S_-
Population-Density-by-County.png)

[1]
[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/US_count...](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/US_county_household_median_income_2012.png)

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rday
What is very low and very high? I'm not sure my debt/income expectations match
theirs so I'm not sure how to interpret this.

Was there data that I skipped over?

Edit: Yes I did miss the data:

> “somewhat high,” for example, then it means that a zip code’s average loan
> balance is between 25 and 35 percent higher than the national average of
> $24,271

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TheLogothete
Yeah, look at that definitely balanced scale. 2 levels labeled "low" and 7
levels labeled "high". Talk about lying with statistics. Smells like a project
to be used as a political lever. Shame, since it's a very good idea otherwise.

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rsfern
I don't know. The debt level is relative to the national average, and it
ranges from -100% (zero loans) to over 700%. It's not like they fabricated
many 'high' levels, the distribution just has a long tail.

I think a diverging color map displaying continuous values would be more
appropriate, but I'm hesitant to label it 'lying with statistics'.

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ethbro
It does correspond with the realities of college. Remember, you're
hypothetically borrowing against future earning and, for all the griping about
college expense, there are a large number of fields where debt is extremely
high but future earnings are also.

I'd be interested to see this broken down by major.

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natmaster
Where's the data on the student's major and whether the university was
accredited or a hoax university?

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nottestuser
In scrolling around, it looks like debt load corresponds to the locations of
colleges. Seems simple that if you want to know where there is student debt,
you look for students. The delinquency and income correlation is more
interesting.

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sageikosa
Just my obligatory point that putting a color weighted percent scale on areas
of varying size (counties) when the absolute population numbers in those
counties varies independently of county size can cause some misleading
impressions.

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eggoa
Rate of delinquency seems like it would it helpful map to include. (As I read
it, the "Delinquency" map reflects the average size of delinquent loans in the
region, so it has a different denominator than the other maps.)

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PaulHoule
It's funny how every kind of social pathology gets worse when you cross the
Mason-Dixon line

