In this paper, we examine college graduates' perceptions of entering student loan repayment and how they navigated this process. Findings highlight the importance of helping students make informed borrowing decisions, particularly as they begin repaying their student loan debt. Policy makers wishing to hold institutions accountable for keeping…

Although student loan debt has been rigorously studied over the past several decades, scant research has investigated how institutions of higher education communicate debt to current and former student borrowers. As COVID-19 forced the United States Department of Education to cancel the Annual Student Loan Acknowledgement as part of a student's…

As federal policymakers consider changes to income-driven repayment (IDR) schemes, research examining the characteristics and financial behaviors of student loan borrowers participating in IDR is necessary. Using the nationally representative Survey of Consumer Finances, we examined the demographics of IDR enrollment. Counter to expectations,…

In 2018-2019, North Carolina implemented a loan forgiveness program to recruit talented postsecondary students into teaching majors in needed subject areas. This qualitative case study analyzes the influence of the North Carolina Teaching Fellows Program (NCTFP) on 10 student participants' college, major, and career plans in STEM education to…

This paper investigates the possible opportunity cost of using standard college savings plans against the advantages of using debt to pay for college. In addition, it presents a practical argument for using debt in place of college savings plans in certain instances. By doing so, investors may not only be able to mitigate the difficulty of saving,…

Parent PLUS loans are a growing concern due to their limited income-driven repayment protections and their potential to maintain longstanding racial wealth gaps. Previous research has examined factors associated with student debt burdens of college graduates, but no research has examined factors related to parent borrowing for college. In this…

We update Collier et al. (2021) by using the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) 2019 dataset to explore characteristics of enrollees in Income-Driven Repayment (IDR). SCF 2019 is more likely to include borrowers engaged in REPAYE. Findings support an ongoing need to encourage greater IDR participation for lowest-income borrowers and reinforced…

In this article, we examine the sources of information that college students turn to as they make decisions related to financial aid and student loans. Based on interview data from 25 undergraduate students from one public, four-year institution, our results reveal a great amount of variation in the number and nature of sources on which students…

This study examined predictors of three measures of financial well-being in 354 college students. Results suggest that perceptions of debt are important in understanding financial well-being, but these perceptions need to be considered alongside of individual differences in anxiety, optimism, and parental teaching. Further, regression analyses…

This study presents a mixed methods explanatory analysis of the influence of Stafford loan debtload on persistence among underserved populations attending a Hispanic Serving Institution in the Southwest of the United States. Using data from cohort 2010, fall to fall persistence was examined to assess if debtload was related to persistence for all…

Through the lens of Human Capital theory, the role of financial aid (both amount and type) is explored in the context of student financial stress, and ultimately general student health. Data are taken from a sample of 232 students from a major Midwestern university who were surveyed about their financial attitudes, behavior and knowledge. The…

We analyze changes in financial aid and student enrollment at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) that occurred after the U.S. Department of Education increased the credit history requirements necessary to obtain Parent Loans for Undergraduate Students (PLUS). We use institution-level data to examine financial aid and enrollment…

This review explores the expanding role of federal aid policy considered from a contemporary and social justice perspective. It highlights recent trends in aid policy as well as difficulties that arise from the current system. Next, the review takes up an analysis of current aid policy that carefully considers equity and efficiency as primary…

This study examined a sample of community college students from a diverse, large urban community college system in Texas. To gain a deeper understanding about the effects of background characteristics on student borrowing behaviors and enrollment outcomes, the study employed descriptive statistics and regression techniques to examine two separate…

A common misperception suggests that a high-achieving student can easily complete a degree with very limited debt, and that students with high levels of debt are thus underachievers. This assumption is supported by memories of previous decades when it was realistically possible for most students to work their way through college. This view,…