Research Blog #2
I find that the question of how and if high school students are being prepared about their financial options about college is still interesting. However, it seems harder and harder to find any research that backs any of this up. The first thing that I researched was using Google, and when typing in "educational programs about college for high school students" it find multiple summer programs that are held at the universities for high school students. However, these programs do not fit the criteria that I am looking for. When researching "educational programs about finances for college" the page is a mash-up of links for repayment benefits for people in the military, a link for Federal Student Aid, and some news articles pertaining to this topic. When using databases such as Google Scholar, I have yet to find any relevant articles that would help with my topic, but these resources are useful so I will just need to dig a little deeper. It seems that the subject that people are most interested in is government aid. It seems that the major way students are parents are prepared to pay for college is through various government loans from Financial Aid. However, this is the problem that I am trying to uncover. Yes, you will most likely need some sort of financial aid and this information is helpful, but what about the other programs or scholarship opportunities that students could receive to relieve some of the burden of paying for college.
This article from FOX Business: http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2012/12/31/tips-for-low-income-students-to-pay-for-college/> is interesting because it is giving insight into the various ways to pay for college. Although the title "Tips for Low-Income Students to Pay for College" may target only a specific group it has useful information that every student could make use of. After knowing these options, students then can do some additional research.
This article from College Scholarships: <http://www.collegescholarships.org/grants/> is helpful because it gives detailed information about grants for college. This information gives students the information they need to learn about grants and other ways to pay for college.
You might just start by looking at "financial literacy" programs for college students (or high school students), most of which have focused on protecting students from overspending with credit cards -- but it seems high time they focused on helping students figure out how to pay for college. There was a classic study in the field by Chen and Volpe that is often cited:
ReplyDeletehttp://www2.stetson.edu/fsr/abstracts/vol_7_num2_107.pdf
I'm sure there has been a lot written since then. The problem students face today is that they are more and more expected to pay for college themselves -- and they are increasingly from lower socio-economic classes that have less experience with financial matters. That combination seems a recipe for disaster. Basically, students -- especially the poorest students -- are making bad financial decisions regarding college.
This is a good topic. Try "financial literacy" and "college students" as search terms.