"[A new consumer rating] score you should know about is very new - in fact, it's still in public beta - but the company that created it will be launching their site in fall 2009," Examiner reports. "It's the Human Capital ScoreTM and it was devised by People Capital primarily as a metric to help investors who want to lend in the peer to peer college loan space. Essentially, it takes input such as test scores, GPA (high school or undergrad), choice of major and college and reports back 2-year and 8-year projected mean incomes. What can the HCS tell you? It can help you decide, as an investor, whether a particular student loan is a reasonable risk and therefore, a good investment for you. It can also tell you as a parent if your child's educational choices are trending toward a good future income or not."