Here's a half-way measure to give the lenders better incentives, without risking making bankruptcy on your 22nd birthday a rite of passage: Make non-dischargea

Here's a half-way measure to give the lenders better incentives, without risking making bankruptcy on your 22nd birthday a rite of passage: Make non-dischargeable student loans only repayable at all when your taxable income is above $50k (or some number keyed to official stats), capped at 15% of income, and written off after 20 years. And let the interest rate, and amount offered, vary with major, school, SAT score, everything. This will provided a vivid picture to 17-year olds of what their choices mean. Taking a 4-year all-inclusive resort holiday should be expensive, maybe it's a nice gift to buy your kids, but nobody should stumble into it thinking they are getting job training. (But the same major at a more selective school may actually have great outcomes -- it doesn't have to be direct job training.) And this way there's no need for a committee to identify which programs do or don't fall into this category, the bankers are free to gamble as they wish.