average student loan debt and percentage of students with debt plots

debtdata.R

state_college_data <- read.csv("https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sjstebbins/ExploratoryDataViz/master/data/CollegeInSight_Explore.csv", stringsAsFactors = FALSE)
#parse state names
state_college_data$Name = gsub(' - 4-year or above', '', state_college_data$Name)
#rename Year column to Date and Name to State
state_college_data <- rename(state_college_data, Date=Year, State=Name)
#convert date to yearformat
state_college_data$Date = substr(state_college_data$Date,0, nchar(state_college_data$Date) -3)

#convert all NA in order to summarize on year
NAs <- state_data == "N/A"
state_data[NAs] <- NA
#convert appropriate to numerics
state_data[,3:11] <- as.numeric(unlist(state_data[,3:11]))

state_data <- select(state_data, -State)

#group by on year and summarize means
data <- state_data %>% group_by(Date) %>% summarise_each(funs(mean(., na.rm = TRUE))) 

##-------------------------------------
##PLOT 2 - Average Student Loan Debt
##-------------------------------------
#select columns from main dataframe
average_debt <- select(data,Date, Average.debt.of.graduates)
#melt to single column
average_debt<- melt(average_debt,id = 'Date', value.name='Amount.in.Thousands')
#plot
ggplot(average_debt,aes(x=Date,y=Amount.in.Thousands,group=variable,color=variable)) + geom_line()  + ggtitle('Average Student Loan Debt') + theme_fivethirtyeight()+ theme(legend.title=element_blank()) + theme(axis.title = element_text(), axis.title.x = element_blank()) + ylab('Dollars') +theme(legend.position="none") 

##-------------------------------------
##PLOT 3 - Percent of Student with Debt
##-------------------------------------
#select columns from main dataframe
percent_student_with_debt <- select(data,Date, Percent.of.graduates.with.debt)
melt to single column
percent_student_with_debt <- melt(percent_student_with_debt ,id = 'Date', value.name='Percent')
#convert percent to readable integer
percent_student_with_debt$Percent <- as.numeric(percent_student_with_debt$Percent) * 100 
#plot
ggplot(percent_student_with_debt , aes(x=Date,y=Percent,group=variable,color=variable)) + geom_line() + ggtitle('Percent of Students with Debt')+ theme_fivethirtyeight()+ theme(legend.title=element_blank()) + theme(axis.title = element_text(), axis.title.x = element_blank()) + ylab('Percent')  +  theme(legend.position="none")