Financial Support and Its Impact on Undergraduate Student Financial Satisfaction

Students who use government assistance throughout their college career, in order to pay for the furthering of their education are more likely to be unsatisfied with their financial situation. They are less satisfied while in college and taking out the loans, and for the years after graduation when they are in the midst of paying back their student loans.

Source: SOLIS, OSCAR, AND DOROTHY B. DURBAND. "Financial Support and Its Impact on Undergraduate Student Financial Satisfaction." College Student Journal 49.1 (2015): 93-105. Education Research Complete. Web. 26. Oct. 2016.

Summary: Taking out student loans sometimes can cause college students to be unsatisfied with their current financial situation. Currently, the cost of public institutions is rising quicker than the cost of private institutions, but it is overall "increasing at an alarming rate." For my college students, getting government assistance through loans is the only possible way they further their education. Typically, students who have a "family income less than $50,000" are more likely to rely on student loans to pay for their education. And on average, college students will take out between $2,000-$9,000 per year in loans. However, student loans is often the difference between going, and not going, to college. "Over 70% of borrowers agree that student loans were very or extremely important in gaining access to a college education." Furthermore, these students who had government assistance believed that the "investment was worth the benefits they received." Even with the need for wanting to extend their education, the stress and need to rely on government assistance to gain a higher education can cause students to be financially unsatisfied throughout the time period they are paying off their loans.

Quality: The study is structured very well. Each part of the study is broken down into each section of what could cause financial satisfaction or not being satisfied with your finances. The study is very organized with headings and subheadings. With being organized, the conductor of the study breaks the study down and explains each section in great detail. For example, In the methods section, they explain the different variables used within the study. Structure and detail is a very important aspect of a study in order for those reading it to be able to follow it more easily. Additionally, since it is broken down in sections, it is easier to find the exact statistics or facts you are looking for. To conclude, the study is extremely organized and therefore easy to follow along to.

Issues: For this study, those who conducted it only surveyed one southwestern university. The information received through the study can therefore only be applicable to the southwestern public university. This could cause an error in the data collected. For instance, the students who attend this university could be from a less fortunate part of the country and will then be forced to take out more student loans. Another example how this could cause an error would be if all of the students who were surveyed at the one university were of one background or one class: example, if they were all apart of the working class. Also, whether or not the students worked and the pay rate in that area could have also effected the data collected. As you can see, only conducting the study in one university could inflate or cause errors in the data. The study should have surveyed students who attended different colleges and were of all backgrounds.