$1.1 trillion student loan bubble? Not so fast

“The people we’re worried about are totally on the other end,” said Alexander Holt, a policy analyst at the New America Foundation. “They have low balances, but they went to a really bad school, they have not graduated, the debt they have is worthless. ... The time they’re spending in college isn’t paying off.” Students who earn a bachelor’s or associate’s degree rarely default on their loans, according to research by Holt’s colleague Clare McCann. Only 3.5 percent of them do.