RESEARCH PROPOSAL 1

Research Proposal
Tiffany Garza

Weber State University

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Statement of the Problem:

In today’s society, student loans are a common topic among graduating high school

students. The talk is mainly out of anxiety, and not excitement. From personal experience, the

thought of finding a way to pay for college is horribly stressful. Most students don’t enjoy the

thought of having the weight of student loans on their shoulders for the rest of their adult life.

In fact, the majority of college graduates are paying up to around $30,000 towards their tuition

(Collier, 2019). Student loans are a national problem, and are affecting the life choices and

relationships of students, and future college students as well.

Purpose:

The primary question asked is “How does college debt affect future life choices of

students?” Some other questions that can be asked are: “How does college debt affect future

relationships?”, “What percentage of students get their college paid for by their parents?”, and

“Do students in debt regret going to college?” While doing research on this topic, I hope to

educate myself on the pros and cons of student loans. As well as educating my siblings and

friends on the issue to help provide some insight while they consider college.

Literature Review:

The first source is titled “Student Debt Effects on Well-Being: Research and Policy

Implications.” From the title, it can be assumed what the article’s main focus is: how student

debt affects a student for the rest of their life, or until the debt is paid off. One of the main

points that stands out is getting a higher education gives the idea of economic security. When

most of the time it creates instability, such as: lower net worth, less home equity, inability to

save for retirement, and not being able to make a down payment on a future home. This source
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helps express the headaches that come with student debt; and that for some Americans, that

headache never goes away (Elliot & Lewis, 2015).

Although the thought of student debt is frightening, and some people avoid a higher

education altogether because of others’ experiences with student loans, there is a chance for a

solution to this nationwide problem. The second source sparks ideas for a better way to handle

the rising tuition costs of attending an institution. One of the main ideas being that universities

could cut the cost of room and board, or even operating costs. Purdue University even decided

to make a deal with Amazon to make textbooks cheaper for students (Hallowed, 2019). This

secondary source provides somewhat of an for a solution to rising student debt across the U.S.

Methods:

As I continue to write about student debt and its effects, I plan on educating myself

through my research using academic and scholarly articles. In fact, I have found an article

where a law school student shares how student loans have affected his plans for the future. For

primary sources, I intend on interviewing some family members on how student loans affected

or still affect them. I believe using the personal experiences of my family and others’, along with

statistics will be a useful comparison when thinking about my future in college.

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References

Collier, L. (2019, October 25). College costs. CQ researcher, 29, 1-61. Retrieved from

http://library.cqpress.com/

Elliot, W., Lewis, M. (2015, September). Student Debt Effects On Well-Being: Research

and Policy Implications. EBSCOhost. Retrieved from https://web-a-ebscohost-

com.hal.weber.edu/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=f996e65a-cd92-4499-9a8a-

0a50381d46f4%40sdc-v-sessmgr01&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d

%3d#AN=108930442&db=buh

Hallowed, J. (2019, July 26). Conservative Solutions to College Costs, Student Debt. Gale

OneFile. Retrieved from https://go-gale-com.hal.weber.edu/ps/i.do?

p=ITBC&u=ogde72764&id=GALE%7CA596603223&v=2.1&it=r&sid=summon