So another week has gone by. Still haven't made much progress on the research at hand. However this week I've prepared some questions for when we visit the library:
-What is the percentage of college graduates who are in over there heads in student loan debt? What other statistics can factor into this percentage, including but not limited to, degree, variations of universities, etc, etc.
-What is the mean dollar amount of student debt owed by your average 4year college graduate? What percent of graduating students do not get student loans and have their parents or someone else pay their college for them? And is there any correlation between having more/less student debt post graduation and success.
-What can we, as debtors of student loans, do, if anything, in order to help ourselves to not fall into debt after college?
I look forward to seeing you all at our library session this week and good luck continuing your papers!
More to come soon,
Joe
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Week 2
After thinking over my topics throughout last week I think I've been able to narrow them down to my one main topic. As of now I have decided to choose "the rising costs of college and matching student debt." This topic really has a significant impact on not only my future, but many of yours as well. With this in mind, it is the obvious choice for me to conduct my research on. Not only will this research greatly benefit my writing for my paper, but it will also allow me to discover many crucial points that i may use to help myself within this potential problem.
For my internet search, i googled "the rising costs of college and matching student debt." There were many informative links but a few really stood out to me off the back. the first link i clicked brought me to an article in the newyorker by James Surowiecki titled, "Debt by Degrees." This article explains about the student debt pandemic we as a country are experiencing. As students, it is costing us an absurd amount of money for what many believe is a degree that may or may not be worth nothing. Some degrees clearly aren't even worth what we pay the university to obtain. Since the 1990s the cost of tuition to universities has risen 3x as much as standard inflation over that period. Combine that with budget cuts and reduced state aid, etc, and we find ourselves in a time period where the ever increasing costs of colleges is outright ridiculous. Just since I have been a Rutgers student, the costs of tuition has increased by over 1,000 dollars a year. Now even though 1,000 dollars a year might not seem like much, you have to take into account the 35,000+ undergraduate students attending school here. At 1,000 dollars extra a year that's 35 MILLION dollars in extra funds! Where is that $35,000,000 dollars going to? Surely that can't be merely going to faculty and facilities without the addition of many substantial new buildings(Livingston did get a new dining hall(which is absolutely great)), but still it just doesn't seem as though that extra 1,000 dollars per student is adding to our education and more importantly, adding to our future careers in which we will need to repay that amount.
Another article I found online was an article from Yahoo news. This article showed that the amount of college debt that students owe from 2000-2011 has quintupled! Total student loan debt even surpassed the overall nation credit card debt in 2010 for the first time in history. That's a crazy amount of debt! However the most interesting thing I discovered from this article is that there is actually a movement that has just started which aims at decreasing or removing student debt altogether. This movement is known as 'The Occupy Student Debt Campaign' This campaign states that education should not be a source of profit for the government and banks which send out loans and thus end up providing a significant amount of future debt for students and borrowers alike. It states that education is a right that should be given to the public and not a privilege which must be purchased. After all, it is us college graduates who will go on to improve the United States later on through our careers, whatever they may be.
On the site there are 3 separate groups who can sign, all which contribute to the 1,000,000 person goal the organization seeks in order to present this petition. The 3 groups are:
Debtors - which is for students and/or parents who have taken out loans for college education; Faculty - which is for any faculty member of universities who agrees with this movement;
Non-debtors - I believe that this 3rd group is for any 3rd party individuals who agree with the cause that this organization is seeking.
The pledge says that once 1,000,000 people have signed the petition, they pledge to essentially boycott the repayment of debt accrued through college loans, in an attempt to force the government and lenders to remove student debt, and/or provide loans to college students w/o interest so that they will not develop high interest charges which will plummet students deeper into debt, while the lenders reap profits. Needless to say after researching this movement, as a student with student loans myself, I quickly jumped on board and signed the petition. If you have student loans yourself, I really encourage you to do the same. All it takes is a second and who knows, maybe it'll pass and all our student debts will one day be erased. If not, at least we tried to help not only ourselves, but the future of our fellow students. Here's the link to the campaign.
http://www.occupystudentdebtcampaign.org/pledges/
Until next week,
Joe
Interesting sources:
http://www.occupystudentdebtcampaign.org/pledges/
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/financial/2011/11/21/111121ta_talk_surowiecki
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/fact-check-exploding-student-loan-debt-chart-145504148.html
For my internet search, i googled "the rising costs of college and matching student debt." There were many informative links but a few really stood out to me off the back. the first link i clicked brought me to an article in the newyorker by James Surowiecki titled, "Debt by Degrees." This article explains about the student debt pandemic we as a country are experiencing. As students, it is costing us an absurd amount of money for what many believe is a degree that may or may not be worth nothing. Some degrees clearly aren't even worth what we pay the university to obtain. Since the 1990s the cost of tuition to universities has risen 3x as much as standard inflation over that period. Combine that with budget cuts and reduced state aid, etc, and we find ourselves in a time period where the ever increasing costs of colleges is outright ridiculous. Just since I have been a Rutgers student, the costs of tuition has increased by over 1,000 dollars a year. Now even though 1,000 dollars a year might not seem like much, you have to take into account the 35,000+ undergraduate students attending school here. At 1,000 dollars extra a year that's 35 MILLION dollars in extra funds! Where is that $35,000,000 dollars going to? Surely that can't be merely going to faculty and facilities without the addition of many substantial new buildings(Livingston did get a new dining hall(which is absolutely great)), but still it just doesn't seem as though that extra 1,000 dollars per student is adding to our education and more importantly, adding to our future careers in which we will need to repay that amount.
Another article I found online was an article from Yahoo news. This article showed that the amount of college debt that students owe from 2000-2011 has quintupled! Total student loan debt even surpassed the overall nation credit card debt in 2010 for the first time in history. That's a crazy amount of debt! However the most interesting thing I discovered from this article is that there is actually a movement that has just started which aims at decreasing or removing student debt altogether. This movement is known as 'The Occupy Student Debt Campaign' This campaign states that education should not be a source of profit for the government and banks which send out loans and thus end up providing a significant amount of future debt for students and borrowers alike. It states that education is a right that should be given to the public and not a privilege which must be purchased. After all, it is us college graduates who will go on to improve the United States later on through our careers, whatever they may be.
On the site there are 3 separate groups who can sign, all which contribute to the 1,000,000 person goal the organization seeks in order to present this petition. The 3 groups are:
Debtors - which is for students and/or parents who have taken out loans for college education; Faculty - which is for any faculty member of universities who agrees with this movement;
Non-debtors - I believe that this 3rd group is for any 3rd party individuals who agree with the cause that this organization is seeking.
The pledge says that once 1,000,000 people have signed the petition, they pledge to essentially boycott the repayment of debt accrued through college loans, in an attempt to force the government and lenders to remove student debt, and/or provide loans to college students w/o interest so that they will not develop high interest charges which will plummet students deeper into debt, while the lenders reap profits. Needless to say after researching this movement, as a student with student loans myself, I quickly jumped on board and signed the petition. If you have student loans yourself, I really encourage you to do the same. All it takes is a second and who knows, maybe it'll pass and all our student debts will one day be erased. If not, at least we tried to help not only ourselves, but the future of our fellow students. Here's the link to the campaign.
http://www.occupystudentdebtcampaign.org/pledges/
Until next week,
Joe
Interesting sources:
http://www.occupystudentdebtcampaign.org/pledges/
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/financial/2011/11/21/111121ta_talk_surowiecki
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/fact-check-exploding-student-loan-debt-chart-145504148.html
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Week 1
When i signed up for this course, there were a few topics that stood out to me as potential choices for my paper. As a fraternity brother here at Rutgers, "the role of fraternities and sororities" in a college environment really caught my eye. Being a member of a fraternity, i can relate to this topic in many ways and on a very deep level. From the effects it has on the college atmosphere, to the benefits of joining a fraternity in the professional world after college, and we can even go as far as to how "hazing" effects fraternity pledges and members, both short-term and long-term. There are many many topics that can be discussed within the subject, "the role of fraternities and sororities." Aside from this topic, there are two more topics which stand out as potential candidates. "The rising costs of college and matching student debt," and "The disconnect between student life and academics" are the other two potential topics.
As a college student its safe to say that most, if not all of us have at some point in our college career faced the sometimes difficult decision of "Should i go out and party or should i stay in and study?" This is the single most important question that many of us have faced on any given Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. This disconnect between student life and academics is a potential problem for us students nowadays. Is the pressure of being socially accepted enough to cause one to skip an important homework assignment or miss studying for an exam. In a college environment where sometimes the work load can be overwhelming and/or more difficult than anticipated, many students need time on the weekends to relax and enjoy themselves after a hard week's work. But some classes are so demanding that they deny the student's this opportunity by having assignments due on these weekend days or by requiring excessive studying. Is this fair to those students?
The 3rd potential topic for me is "the rising costs of college and matching student debt." As someone who has experienced this firsthand, is it "fair" for universities to charge such large quantities of money for tuition, yet offer such little financial grants, aids, etc. Is it fair for the universities to raise tuition every year by a thousand or so dollars. What is the purpose of that extra thousand dollars? With 35,000 undergraduate students paying 12-25,000 dollars per year just for instate tuition, and some paying near 35,000 for out-of-state tuition, us students are often found wondering where does all this money go? Does me paying that extra 1000 dollars really add benefit to my college education and experience? Or does a majority of that money go to funds and organizations that many students do not even take part in? It is a commonly known fact that the new Rutgers football stadium cost a significant amount of money to build. And with this money coming from our tuition expenses, some may wonder if the students should suffer from higher expenses without gaining the extra benefit of increased education values. And with all this debt accumulating from student loans, etc, its going to take us years of working after college just to pay off our debt and start fresh.
I'm not yet sure which topic I am going to choose for my paper, but for now these are the ones I find myself thinking about. Only time will tell which one it's going to be.
See you next week,
Joey
As a college student its safe to say that most, if not all of us have at some point in our college career faced the sometimes difficult decision of "Should i go out and party or should i stay in and study?" This is the single most important question that many of us have faced on any given Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. This disconnect between student life and academics is a potential problem for us students nowadays. Is the pressure of being socially accepted enough to cause one to skip an important homework assignment or miss studying for an exam. In a college environment where sometimes the work load can be overwhelming and/or more difficult than anticipated, many students need time on the weekends to relax and enjoy themselves after a hard week's work. But some classes are so demanding that they deny the student's this opportunity by having assignments due on these weekend days or by requiring excessive studying. Is this fair to those students?
The 3rd potential topic for me is "the rising costs of college and matching student debt." As someone who has experienced this firsthand, is it "fair" for universities to charge such large quantities of money for tuition, yet offer such little financial grants, aids, etc. Is it fair for the universities to raise tuition every year by a thousand or so dollars. What is the purpose of that extra thousand dollars? With 35,000 undergraduate students paying 12-25,000 dollars per year just for instate tuition, and some paying near 35,000 for out-of-state tuition, us students are often found wondering where does all this money go? Does me paying that extra 1000 dollars really add benefit to my college education and experience? Or does a majority of that money go to funds and organizations that many students do not even take part in? It is a commonly known fact that the new Rutgers football stadium cost a significant amount of money to build. And with this money coming from our tuition expenses, some may wonder if the students should suffer from higher expenses without gaining the extra benefit of increased education values. And with all this debt accumulating from student loans, etc, its going to take us years of working after college just to pay off our debt and start fresh.
I'm not yet sure which topic I am going to choose for my paper, but for now these are the ones I find myself thinking about. Only time will tell which one it's going to be.
See you next week,
Joey
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