Literature Review #1

The article I chose to review is called "Who Pays for College?" It was written by Janet Bodnar and discusses who pays for college now a days. She discusses how more and more students are having to help their parents out by paying some, if not all, of their tuition. She suggests that students attend community college so that they won'y be in debt when they graduate. She also talks about how certain majors aren't worth paying so much money to attend college for because those students are't going to make that money back with their majors. For example, "She won't be in the position of another young woman whose mother wrote to me: "My daughter majors in religious studies at a private college where tuition is quite high. I'm concerned about the amount of loans she'll have and her ability to repay them.'" Bodnar talks about here how a mother wrote to her about her concern about her daughter's major in college. Bodnar says that parents need to talk to their kids before they allow them to go to college. "Talk the talk. Before kids apply to college, have a frank discussion with them about how much it will cost, what you're willing to pay and what their obligation will be. Even at the new fixed rate of 6.8% on student loans, it can make sense to borrow judiciously." She gives advice for parents to give their kids. She says that many parents are expecting their parents to pay for college or help them out but some students are not in that mind set. "But in some families, kids say they are shocked when Mom and Dad can't or won't bear full freight for any school they want to attend." Bodnar says that she thinks students should have to help pay for college because it is just too much for many parents to take on completely by themselves.

Bodnar is recgonized as a "nationally recognized guru on personal and family finances." This allows for this source to reliable since Bodnar is knowledgeable about this topic. Bodnar is the editor of Kiplinger's Personal Finance. Two terms i chose to define to get a better understanding of are:
1. merit scholarships- Financial aid awards given to students in recognition of academic, athletic, or artistic achievement
2. debt- An obligation or liability to pay or render something to someone else.

This article is very important to my research question because it gives examples of families who need their kids to help pay for college and also stories of parents who can pay it all by themselves. Bodnar also gives good advice on the topic of paying for college and whether or not it's worth paying so much for certain degrees, especially if a student is paying for college all by themselves. This is a very reliable source for my research on "Who pays for college?"

This is a photo of Janet Bodnar. 


Bodnar, Janet. "Who Pays for COLLEGE?" OmniFile Full Text Mega (H.W. Wilson). N.p., Sept. 2006. Web. 25 Feb. 2013. <http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ofm&AN=504222939&site=ehost-live>.

Privatization Connection

Since privatization is increasing the cost of tuition for colleges and universities, different situations with payments are happening. Like you explained to me, that when you attended college it was pretty much expected that your parents were going to pay for your higher education. You said that your one friend had to pay for it on your own and that was almost unheard of. But today, since the price of college is so high, more and more students are having to pay for it on their own or with little help from their parents. The fact that the price of higher education is rising is really affecting who is paying for it. Since my topic is about parents paying for college or who pays for college, privatization connects perfectly. Here are some articles I found about who pays for college.

http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=J0E177424689411&site=ehost-live

http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ofm&AN=504222939&site=ehost-live

Scouting the Territory

I'm still going to do my same idea about "How are you Paying for College?" but I think I might change it to what you suggested about instead of doing a random survey, to go to an adviser. But I'm not exactly sure how to go about that yet. I wonder if I should do a certain amount of students like 25 or just do percentages. I have to think about that one, I think doing percentages on how students are paying for college would be more accurate. But I would like to find out how many parents pay for their children's college tuition. But I feel like I can't find that out from an adviser so I might have to ask students for that one.

I found an interesting article on parents paying for college.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/15/education/parents-financial-support-linked-to-college-grades.html?_r=0
This article has an interesting look at students grades when parents are paying for college. If the parents are paying, apparently the students grades are more likely to be low than if the student is paying for college themselves. The students are more likely to work harder if they are paying with their own money. Also, those who go to college on their parents bills are more likely to graduate on time or at all. This would definitely be an interesting topic to research and find out more about. Here's a different article that provides similar ideas about student's grades being lower if their parents are footing the bills.
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/01/14/study-finds-increased-parental-support-college-results-lower-grades
I think this might be the topic I focus on more closely now, how students are paying for college meaning are their parents helping them?

How are you Paying for College?

How do Rutgers Students Pay for the Education?

I want to write my paper about the different ways that students are paying for their college education here at Rutgers. My idea is to interview around ten different people about the way they are paying for their college degree and the struggles that may come with that. I want to hear from real students who attend college and find out how they are dealing with the large cost of college. I want to see how many students are working while attending Rutgers and how many student's parents are helping them out with tuition and so on. I think this would help get an idea of how expensive college is and how many different types of people with different financial situations attend Rutgers. I think this research will help discover that more financial help is needed for students going to college. I would assume that even for the working class that this tuition is not a comfortable amount of money to be spending. For example, my roommate pays for her college education completely on her own. Her parents don't help her at all and therefore she gets financial aid. Without the financial aid, she would not be able to attend Rutgers because it is just so expensive. My experience for paying for college tuition includes taking out a lot of loans and working a job at school. I'm really interested in how everyone else is dealing with the burden of paying for college. So that's why I want to interview a variety of people to hear about their experiences and come to some type of conclusion about how the cost of college is affecting student's lives who attend Rutgers.