As you struggle to repay your student loans, you can at least comfort yourself with the knowledge that your papers were graded by qualified professors and teaching assistants, and not by housewives in Bangalore. Students attending college today… may not be so lucky.

A company called EduMetry is here to help professors who want their students to have more detailed feedback on their writing than faculty or their TAs actually have time to give. Graders work in India, Singapore, Malaysia…but some are also based in the United States.

Company officials would not say how many colleges use the service, but Mr. Rajam acknowledges that the concept of anonymous and offshore grading is often difficult for colleges to swallow.

Those that have signed up are a mix of for-profit and nonprofit institutions, many of them business schools, both in the United States and overseas. Professors and administrators say they have been won over by on-the-job performance. “This is what they do for a living,” says Ms. Whisenant. “We’re working with professionals.”

Grading papers can be drudgery, but won’t someone please think of all the underemployed humanities majors right here in the United States?

Some Papers Are Uploaded to Bangalore to Be Graded (Thanks, Joanna!) [Chronicle of Higher Education]

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.