Businessweek has an interesting article on the rising cost of MBA education and the implications of this upward trend in costs on international students –
[...] Yet the outlook isn’t as optimistic for everyone. International students who are more likely to return home to jobs and be paid in local currency will carry MBA debt in U.S. dollars, making it riskier to loan foreign students the money to attend B-school. “Even if they get a huge job [in their home countries] at $35,000 per year, you can’t service that debt, ” says Rosemaria Martinelli, head of MBA admissions and financial aid at Wharton.
Among international students, default rates are now around 10% to 15%, says Sue Roberts, president of Student Loan Corp., a subsidiary of Citibank. “Our experience is that if they go to their home countries, the default rates are higher.”
This story reinforces the importance of students being mindful of the true costs of attendance compared to future predicted earnings. If these calculations are not done correctly, students can be left with a heavy financial burden after graduation.
