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.
-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.
