New student loan program estimates future earnings

In an effort to provide more data for student lending decisions, a company called People Capital has released a new "Human Capital Score" calculator. By providing your SAT scores, college major, and the name of the college you're attending or planning to attend, the calculator will spit out a number (and a range) of what you can expect to earn after you graduate.

The score is still in beta so it's strictly a novelty for now, but the ultimate plan is for the score to be used by private loan providers looking to decide how much they can prudently lend to college students.

Students and their families should be extremely wary of this service -- It may be useful enough on average that student lenders can improve their underwriting decisions with it, but you would have to be on more drugs than Michael Jackson the day he died to borrow money for college based on earnings projections. Although making loan money available based on choice of college and major might be a winning strategy for lenders, there is so much variation within those groups that students shouldn't take out money based on either of those factors.