Education Commons^™

The Role Of Student Debt And Debt Anxiety In College Student Financial Well-Being, Jill M. Norvilitis, Braden K. Linn

Journal of Student Financial Aid

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 highlighted differences between predictors of perceived financial well-being and more and less frequent money saving behaviors, which may indicate different paths for intervention. Specifically, students reporting engaging in less common financial strain behaviors appear to have more objective financial difficulties, whereas students reporting more common financial strain behaviors report more factors that suggest difficulty …

(De)Glossing Financial Aid: Do Colleges And Universities Actually Use Financial Student Aid Jargon?, Zachary W. Taylor, Laura Manor

Journal of Student Financial Aid

Decades of research has suggested that completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) can be a complex, difficult process for postsecondary students and their support networks. However, no extant research has informed federal student aid practitioners and researchers as to what federal student aid jargon terms institutions of higher education actually use in their application instructions to complete the FAFSA. To fill this gap in the research, this study adopts a distributional linguistic approach to analyze a random sample of federal student aid application instructions published on institutional websites (.edu) over three years (2017, 2018, and 2019) to …

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.

It All Adds Up: Examining And Enhancing Campus Climate For Affordability At A Four-Year University, Kevin R. Mcclure, Andrew J. Ryder, Andrew J. Mauk

Journal of Student Financial Aid

This study examined undergraduate students’ perceptions of non-academic spending in college and how they navigated these expenses. Using a mixed-methods study at a public comprehensive university in the southeastern United States, we conceptualized these perceptions as a central component of campus climate for affordability in college. Findings demonstrated that campus policies, practices, and spaces facilitated non-academic spending and exacerbated students’ perceptions that college is unaffordable. Non-academic and social costs were more expensive than students anticipated, and many students struggled to manage their money and cover these costs. Students shared a range of strategies to navigate non-academic expenses, from opting out …