Will Flaugher Source 2

Best, Joel, and Eric Best. “The Shifting Landscape for Student Loans.” Soc Society, vol. 53, no. 1, 2015, pp. 51–55. doi:10.1007/s12115-015-9972-5.

What caused student loans to become such a dangerous endeavor, and who is it affecting the most?

This is a topic that we have touched briefly before in class, so I really want more of an understanding as to why student loans are as big as they are today. For example, I always see articles mention student loan debt being larger than credit card debt, but really how big of a deal is that? To be fair, credit cards have spending limits on them and student loans can be for thousands of dollars over the two to four years a student is in college. Another thing I want to mention is that I feel like these student loans hurt the less well off the hardest, because they will have a hard time paying back the loans.
While reading, I notice the article mentions that higher-risk students who are borrowing are more likely to have trouble graduating and paying back their student loans. Also mentions specifically for-profit universities, such as Corinthian Colleges, taking advantage of borrowers. Article says that the amount that a person owes is typically not the issue, and that the issue with student loans can be found in the smaller loans that are taken out. The borrowers most at risk are the higher-risk students who borrow, but don't finish their college careers, meaning they don't make as much money as other college graduates and have difficulty paying off their student loans.
After reading, I think that the article brought up a lot of good points about student loans. Despite the sheer value of the student debt being so high, many of them will have enough income to not have to worry about making their payments on the loans. Another good point it raised is that even if students are forgiven their loans, the burden is then going to be taken over by taxpayers.

In this article, the author attempts to explain who is most negatively affected by student loans. He mentions the shady practices of for-profit universities, the connection between risk and social class, the issues with finding a remedy to help alleviate the huge debt we have, and says that the complexity of higher education is too complicated for a simple solution. He proposes that the best way of dealing with the issue is simply to tackle the rising cost of a higher education and get it under control.

For myself, I find a lot of this to make sense but also disagree with it. I think that high-risk students who leave college early are obviously the most affected, but even with finishing a college education it does not make your student loan payments for a large number of students. I feel that stating that just because college graduates statistically make more money doesn't really cover the issues all student have with student debt. However, the source does give me a better understanding of how we can (or cannot) tackle the student loan issue, and brings up an important point about someone having to pay back the student loan even if it is forgiven.

With the two sources I have now, one covers the fact that students in debt are more likely to have mental health issues, and the other talks about which students are the most affected by loans. When I put these together, one thing I could say is that the current student loan system is a vicious cycle for students with lower academic scores that come from poorer backgrounds. These students are most likely to have trouble paying off their debt, and because they are in debt are more likely to have mental health issues. When trying to make a better life for yourself, these obstacles are near impossible to overcome.

The new question this source has led me to ask is more specific to my current question, what are some of the issues student loans pose for students who are still in college? Does it have any affect on their academic or social lives? I have a good understanding now of how student loans are more likely to affect a student's mental health and how student loans can affect higher-risk students, but I want to know more about the average college student at this point.