In September 2020, the National Student Clearinghouse estimated that while enrollment in undergraduate programs for associate’s and bachelor’s degrees fell by 9.7% compared to 2019, enrollment in master’s programs increased 6%. Most recent tallies for the Spring 2021 term found that while undergraduate enrollment has decreased by 4.9% since 2020, graduate enrollment has increased by 4.6%.

But even as master’s degree enrollment has boomed, borrowers, activists and journalists have called attention to the student debt crisis — and the role that master’s degrees play in the country’s $1.7 trillion student debt total. READ MORE