These 10 College Majors Carry the Most Student Loan Debt

Median undergraduate borrower debt at bachelor's degree is about $25,084 and almost half of full-time undergraduates take out loans. Curriculum and instruction majors carry the highest median debt—more than $20,000 above the overall bachelor’s median—while behavioral sciences median debt is $44,554, engineering-related technology is $41,308, and complementary and alternative medicine exceeds $40,000. Higher debt burdens are linked to factors like delayed graduation, attendance at costlier schools, and lower postgrad earnings in some fields; borrowers can use forbearance, deferment, or income-driven plans to reduce payments but those options typically allow interest to accrue, extending and increasing total repayment costs.

Analysis

The concentration of higher-than-average undergraduate debt in a subset of majors implies credit stress will be unevenly distributed across cohorts and geographies, not uniform across the borrower pool. That creates localized second-order pressure: higher delinquencies among recent grads in lower-earning fields will show up first in credit-card and subprime auto portfolios, and only later in broader consumer credit metrics — expect a 6–24 month lag from graduation to material bank P&L impact.

Servicers and education-service providers will diverge: firms that monetize recurring behavior (tutoring, exam prep, certificate platforms) stand to gain from a durable shift toward upskilling, while balance-sheet lenders and student-housing landlords face idiosyncratic downside if repayment burdens force enrollment deferrals or housing downgrades. Outside the obvious incumbents, expect ancillary demand effects — increased short-term rental churn, higher usage of fintech buy-now-pay-later products, and pressure on early-career salary growth in metros with high concentrations of affected majors.

Policy and macro are the key catalysts: expansion of income-driven repayment, one-off forgiveness, or faster wage growth would blunt credit losses and compress upside for servicers; conversely, resumption of standard amortization schedules or a weak entry-level labor market would sharpen losses and accelerate deleveraging behavior among young households. Tail risks include bipartisan legislative action that reassigns loan servicing economics or a technology-driven alternative credential boom that obviates traditional degree demand — both would materially re-rate education equity exposures within 12–36 months.

Key Decisions for Investors

• Long CHGG (Chegg) 12–18 months: buy CHGG stock or a bullish call spread (e.g., Jan 2027 calls) to play durable demand for low-cost reskilling and test-prep as borrowers avoid costly grad programs. Target 30–50% upside; max loss = option premium or 100% of equity stake. Tighten if revenue-per-user growth decelerates for two consecutive quarters.
• Long NNI (Nelnet) 6–12 months with size discipline: servicers collect fee income even as defaults ebb and flow — buy NNI for 20–30% total-return potential while hedging with a small put position (6–12 month) to limit downside if policy shifts reduce servicer economics. Watch legislative headlines; cut if Congress signals sweeping IDR fee changes.
• Pair trade — long CHGG / short ACC (American Campus Communities) over 12 months: expect secular demand into online/alternative credentials (CHGG) and near-term pressure on on-campus enrollment/housing (ACC). Structure as equal-dollar positions sized to target 2:1 upside/downside asymmetry; exit if national undergraduate enrollment trends reverse for two consecutive semesters.
• Short selective consumer lenders with outsized young-borrower exposure (e.g., consider small short or buy protective puts on COF/SLM) over 6–18 months: rising near-term delinquencies among recent grads can compress retail lending NIMs and credit quality. Keep position small (<=1% NAV) and define stop at 25% adverse move given macro sensitivity.