Glater, Jonathan D. "Student Debt and Higher Education Risk." California Law Review 103.6 (2015): 1561-1614.
Question: Are the risks of higher education worth student loan debt?
My initial thoughts: I personally believe taking the risk of receiving student loans to pay for college is completely worth it. You're getting access to an education that, in the long run, will open doors for you that a high school education might not have. Before reading this article and doing my research, my mind was closed off to the different reasons people might not want to take that risk and receive student loans. It didn't make sense to me when the outcome of higher education seemed to be worth it. Now that I've read the article and gotten a grasp on the different perspectives of higher education and the risks that follow with student loans, I can now think clearly.
The article addressed a few topics: student debt risk, loan repayment, and higher education deferment. According to the article, most students borrow less than $25,000 but that doesn't stop student loan rates from increasing. The gap between upper class and the lower classes are wider than ever, seeing as lower class students are continuously digging themselves into a hole by taking out more and more student loans. Which, in turn, makes it easier for students to contemplate dropping out or even not applying to higher education. The thoughts of being in debt are enough to sway potential students from achieving education because they simply cannot afford to pay for it afterwards. Students also have to take into account if their post-graduate income will be enough to pay for their loans. You've been in college for 4+ years and now that you've graduated it's time to start paying off your loans, but it seems you don't make enough money, what do you do? It's hard for anyone to imagine that yet it happens to so many graduates these days.
This source definitely shed a light on a different perspective. It was easy for me to be naive and say that anyone can get through paying their loans and college will make it all worth it in the end but that isn't 100% true. If anything, higher education can make life worse for some people. Say you can't find a job once you graduate, the federal government doesn't care about that, they care about getting the money back that you owe them. What you thought was going to be easy once you got your degree is now harder than ever. Companies even want employees with a more advanced degree under their belt. Not only do you have thousands of dollars in loan debt that you have to repay, but also you need to go back to college just to even get a well paying job to pay off your debt. To me it seems to be a never ending cycle of constant debt and now I see that it might not be worth it for some people. It was very hard for me to imagine why but if you think realistically and critically about the situation, everyone's outcome is different and you can't base it off of one person or one experience.
This article is a nice reflection of the cons of going into higher education, what they don't tell you about student loans, and the risks taken by trying to achieve a better education. Though I still do believe that higher education is worth the risk, this article definitely shows me a side I hadn't contemplated. The source has led me to ask a few questions: what is life like for those who dropped out and are still paying student loans, and for those who didn't go to college because of student loans, do you regret your decision? Those two questions will be the basis of further research. Once I answer those questions, I believe I can continue to evaluate and explore my thesis more.
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