Education Commons^™

The North Carolina Teaching Fellows Program: A Case Study Of The Use Of Forgivable Loans In Recruiting Future Stem Teachers, Katie N. Smith

Journal of Student Financial Aid

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 understand how loan incentives shaped student interest in teaching careers in STEM subjects. Findings reveal that forgivable loan funding influenced college choice among those choosing institutions at the time of NCTFP acceptance. While the NCTFP was most appealing to participants who already planned to become STEM educators, there is also evidence …

Institutional And State-Level Factors Related To Paying Back Student Loan Debt Among Public, Private, And For-Profit Colleges, Amy Y. Li, Robert Kelchen

Journal of Student Financial Aid

In this study, we examine whether institutional-level characteristics, student demographics, and state conditions are associated with student loan repayment rates and cohort-level loan default rates. We separately explore these characteristics for each of four higher education sectors: public 2-year colleges, for-profit colleges, public 4-year colleges, and private 4-year colleges. We conduct a series of multiple linear regressions on a sample of 2,375 colleges. Estimates suggest that across all sectors except at for-profits, colleges enrolling a higher percentage of historically underrepresented students, including first-generation and African American/Black students, report lower repayment rates. Additionally, a higher percentage of students enrolled who file …

Higher Education: Can Debt Beat Savings?, David Stackpole

Journal of Student Financial Aid

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, but also realize greater financial benefit in the long run.

The History Of Denying Federal Financial Aid To System-Impacted Students, Bradley D. Custer

Journal of Student Financial Aid

People who are impacted by the criminal justice system (“system-impacted”) face barriers when seeking financial aid to pay for college. Between the late 1960s and the early 2000s, Congress created laws that prohibited incarcerated students and students with certain criminal convictions from receiving federal grants and loans. This paper offers a comprehensive review of the history of those laws, which provides context for current debates on restoring Pell Grants to students in prison. Legislative documents, scholarly sources, and news reports were studied to build this historical review. Key lessons from history are discussed as to how Congress might treat system-impacted …