Incomplete Draft Blog #24

In today’s society you have to attend college to be successful, and it is your parent’s responsibility to pay for it. These two cultural stories drive the student loan debt narrative that affects many aspects of a student’s life. The education system is built in a way that diverts blame from their unfair practices and money hungry parts towards parents and students. This study will shed light on; students preparation in attending college, their interactions with the loan process, the fear of loan debt and how it affects the American Dream and other decisions associated with school, stress between family members relating to affording school, and how the phrase, “Loans allow the opportunity for everyone to get a college degree” is both misleading and hindering the current societal mindset on higher education.

Literature Review

Eric Best published “Debt and the American Dream” in July of 2012. His article focuses on the hinderances that the housing and education markets put on the attaining of the American Dream. His aim is to poke holes in the cultural narratives that we have created. His first section is titled “Not All Bubbles are Created Equal”, and deals with how the housing and education markets become inflated with little oversight in prevention.  He states, “Home ownership and college education have been identified as signals of middle class living in America, and there is broad support for making them widely available.” This shows how expectations of what it means to live out the American Dream drives the market for these industries.

                Best then dives into his next heading “Deregulation and Subsidization” which looks at how strong Americans value education and home ownership. “Home ownership and education are considered sacred ideals, and support for them is almost universal.” The fact that Best says they are universal shows the stigma these two industries have over proposing better judgments to reform the markets.

 

  

Stigmas/Sterotypes

-In addition to future benefits (home values and increased income from education), there is a positive social signal sent by home ownership or college education that lasts over time. The benefits of home ownership and college education are deeply engrained in American culture. -cultural expectation to go to college and buy a house=American dream

-Because most consumers are able to borrow money to finance housing or education, they are less sensitive to price, and therefore look at education and housing opportunities based on features. The original intention of getting more people in homes and in college quickly becomes overshadowed by getting people in more extravagant homes and schools.

-Loans force us to look too far down the road to care about what we are signing up for….builds off of stigma that students are uneducated on the loan process. We pick flashier options rather than cheaper economical ones.

 

-The buildups in features–bigger houses and amenities for students–occur because the immediate cost to consumers is almost invisible. Over a 20-year student loan repayment term or a 30-year mortgage, borrowing another $10,000 hardly seems bothersome. Because students and homebuyers can spread out the costs over long periods of time (if they even have to consider them immediately) there is a tremendous incentive to choose options that are more luxurious instead of options that are cheaper. Homebuilders and universities have been happy to create more luxurious houses and campuses to better compete for consumers armed to the teeth with borrowed funds.

Me=This is evident in her talks about going into pre med because it would yield larger pay. The inticing nature of how we spread out the costs of education and the future profits these certain degrees could make, blurs our current financial stability.

 

-Laws for student loans such as the Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA) and the Federal Direct Student Loan Program of 1993 (FDSLP) fundamentally changed access to college. Amazingly, the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 even tied the number of low interest college loans made to low income students into the standards for CRA compliance, practically forcing banks to participate in subsidized lending for both American Dream assets.

-Kids have to go to college

 

Deregulation coupled with lending incentives redistributed so much money into housing and higher education systems that those industries have not only responded by creating more homes and schools, but by creating more expensive ones.

 

Home loans without down payments and student loans covering all of tuition are available to people who would have a difficult time getting a credit card with a four digit limit.

-uneducation=higher profits for lenders

 

In some cases, consumers are buying goods and services in which they may not even be interested.

Me=could this relate to gen-eds?

 

In both of these cases, consumers can be given loans larger than their current obligations with little oversight about how they are spent.

Me=this shows blatant irresponsible behavior from lenders and explains why we have excess money rollover from semester to semester

 

The for-profit institutions rely on loan money almost exclusively, and want to recruit as many students as possible and retain them for as long as possible until the students reach maximum student loan amounts.

-Students are treated as a commodity not as people wanting to better themselves.

Methods

The objective of this assignment was to see not what was said, but how it was said. This study examines the current role of student loan debt and the cultural and societal aspects that affect student decisions. The purpose of this study is to see why it is accepted and socially normal to accrue debt to attain a college degree. This study also addresses pressures and fears of debt in life’s daily decisions.

My participant was a great person to interview for a bunch of different reasons; D is 1 of 4 kids to attend college in her family, she has a reference of an older sister who has gone through the college system, she recently graduated, she recently had to start paying back her loans, still lives at home and is on the cusp of trying to move out into the world on her own. These are all themes that I addressed in the interview and she more than met the needs for the research. The interview was done in her house at the kitchen table a setting that made her feel very comfortable. 

 Data/Analysis

-This section shows the expectations that parents put on their kids to attend college. The language supports this.

 

Me like any pressures or anything to go to college?

D uh I didn’t feel any pressure per say. It wasn’t likei had to go but I wanted to. I feel if I had ssaid I didn’t want to go that there would have been some push back from myparents.

Me so your parents were very stern about you going to college?

D um welli think it waskinda understood…it just seemednatural to go to college and I wanted to go into higher education and it was support 

 

 

-Location and affordability are important to most students and this may cloud our judgement in finding a school that is a perfect fit for the field we are most interested or strong in.

 

Me  yea I was going to get to a question like that. So what was the priority in choosing a school, was it strictly finiacial, location, or prestige or friends, or the

D it was location and affordability, not to mention Rutgers has a good name associated with it and I wanted to go to a bigger state school no matter what but the driving factor was affordability and location

           -This section is very important it revels the cultural narrative of parents looking after their kids during the college process and setting them up to attend. It also shows how this porcess is steamrolled with kids not getting all the info they need. It also shows how kids feel that the ONLY way they can attend college is by taking out loans.

 

Me was the loan process ever explained to you like going into college or even in high school prepping for college?

D um no um when it came down to me getting accepted It was understood that I would takeout a loan…

,e who told you about … that you had to take out a loan

D my parents…um I remember my mom was at the computer with me and said hey check these forms out and we applied and I got approved like instantly and I kind of took it from there

Me ok were there any consequences explaind to you like if you were to default on a loan

D no I mean

Me like did it feel like a big decision at the time orany pressure by it

D no no but it was my only option that if I wanted to go to school unless I wanted to go part time even though we didn’t discuss that, um if I wanted to be a full time student I would have to take out a loan and all I was told was that when you come out of college and you pay it atleast pay the minimum

And that was it

       -Here is an example on how fear of debt drives our decisions of what field we want to go into

 I always like the sciences I was originally a bio major  and I was pre med cause I wanted to be a physician so I was like uhh it doesn’t matter how many loans Im going to take out I will make it back after med school but that was never realized but as time went on and I found a field I most liked I looked into what was going to make themost money with that degree and I went into it with my masters.

     
       -This section focuses on how stressful having loand debt burden can be, and how this drives students want to do well not, that they are interested in being good at what they are doing.

Me ok so moving on um Rutgers um sorry, where there any pressures of your loan burdenthat wereaffecting your school work while attending Rutgers wasthat fear ever driving any of your school work?

D uhhhmm mmm uhmmm yea

Me was it affecting if you

D not exactly but there I wanna say my first year a year and a half there was a class or two I wouldn’t do   so well in and it would affect me like alomstas a personal failure more than anything but then I started to realize that I am paying for this myself and im taking out loans to fail is not a good feeling it seems like wastes of thousands of dollars. So I decided to take on more responsibility and accountability and it was almost like a kick in the butt and I um hey I gotta perform not only because I wantto do better but because its going to cost me money and its just gonnacost me more if I have to takethe class over

 

 

When looking strictly at the language and how things were said, it seems like D didn’t want to admit to being stressed out in High School during college application time. When asked about this time she said,

“yea well it was a really high stress time for a lot of people in my grade but my goal was to not be stressed, I kind of, I kind of  wanted to go to a bigger school were as some of my colleagues applied to 4 plus schools or even 8 different schools, um , I decided to apply to just Rutgers and Temple, I didn’t do any extensive research really, I didn’t visit any of the schools.”

In this section her hesitation and lack of conviction didn’t make me believe she was stress free

during this big change in her life. She claims she tried to stay stress free but as soon as she states this she stuttered with “I kind of, I kind of”. This may be her gathering her thoughts for the next statement but there is more evidence that she was indeed stressed out during this time in her life. The main thing that adds to stress and anxiety is being unprepared on a subject. In D’s case they only thing she was certain of was that she wanted to go to a big school. She made the claim, “I didn’t do any extensive research really, I didn’t visit any of the schools” which shows that she may have been stressed out. The fact that she mentions her collegues applying to way more many schools than her may lend the notion that her collegues actions could be making her feel like an outsider for not applying to so many schools. In High School, imitation of your friends and peers is a big social pressure and although D does not come out and say it, the language and tone suggests these societal pressures may have weighed on her.

                Another example of how loan debt affected her choices was when I asked her, “did that fear of loan debt affect your choice of major or what field you went into?” She stutters a tiny bit in the beginning of her response but I think it was her wanting to answer truthfully. You could really tell she was carefully thinking when she gave her answer.

“uh um I a little bit, yes come to think of it. It didn’t affect me going to school but my parents weren’t going to pay for it and they made that pretty clear. I also didn’t get a job to save up, for like at least books or something, but to answer your question,  I always liked the sciences I was originally a bio major,  and I was pre-med cause I wanted to be a physician, so I was like uhh it doesn’t matter how many loans I’m going to take out I will make it back after med school. But that was never realized, but as time went on and I found a field I most liked, I looked into what was going to make the most money with that degree and I went into it with my masters.”

This passage reveals that at D’s core she was very concerned with financial security, her financial

future, and her ability to successfully pay back her loans after college. The fact that she brings up that her parents weren’t going to pay for school and that they made that clear, showed ome bitterness to the lack of help or support in attending college. This is an issue that many kids face in wanting to attend college. Earlier in the transcript she even shows this hopelessness when she says, “it was my only option that if I wanted to go to school.” Many kids feel taking out loans are their only options to attend college and sadly, it is the truth.  

                This excerpt also reveals the looming pressures of paying back student loans. She went into a pre-med program for two reasons, because she liked the sciences, and cause it would make enough money to pay back her loans. Accordingly, when she realized she wasn’t going to continue with her pursue of med school, her decision to change was also rooted in making sure she was financially stable enough after college to pay back her loans. She states,” I found a field I most liked, I looked into what was going to make the most money with that degree and I went into it.” This shows her trying to balance her interests with having enough future stability, a balance that many students struggle to achieve in today’s educational system.

From a small dissection of the language D uses shows her fears, pressures, and stress associated with the college process. These are feelings that most students have to go through and deal with, and unfortunately, her language implies that attending college is a struggle and a battle. For something that is supposed to be helping making kids better off later in life, the pressures are affecting their decision making process and could possibly make them go into fields that make them unhappy in their adult lives.

 

Conclusion

 Although the goal of this research wasn’t to solve the student loan debt crisis, it does shed light on the societal and cultural narratives that surround how and why students attend college. This study has shown that the system of higher education is set up in a way where blame of failure is shifted from the institutions, to the parents and kids. These pressures and cultural expectations perpetuate the debt bubble and leave students at a disadvantage. For a system that claims that loans provide opportunities to all kids around the country to better themselves, they fail to engage in a much needed dialogue of how the current economic landscapes has changed, and therefore, the model of attending college must change with it. Further research must be done in order to shift the mindset of young Americans and their want to attend college. Just like loans supposedly provide positive opportunities to all students, students should also be provided with all the information and tools necessary to shape their decisions to give them a better quality of opportunities later in life.

 

Limitations

Only one interview was done to open the door into the views and issues on student loan debt. This study reveals the cultural narratives surrounding college and if more students were interviewed, broader generalizations could have been drawn from the data. Sadly without an overhaul and reform of the education system in the U.S., students will continue to blindly adhere to a flawed and virtually broken system. Responsibility unfortunately falls on parents and students to fix a problem that the higher-ups have created. This issue is extremely important and without further development, students may soon find that it is not in their best interest to attend college. Education is crucial to advancing a culture, and further studies into these issues will help aid in avoiding this tipping point.