Proposal
For my research essay, I will be examining the effects college debt between person A and person C. Having a college degree can potentially be beneficial, if it works out the graduate’s favor (person A). But having a college degree might not be beneficial to all graduates, student debt can cause a great inconvenience to graduate’s personal and finical lives (person B).
The high increase in college tuition is leading most students to take out loans, so they can attend college. Many graduates earn enough money from their career jobs that college helped them receive, to pay off their student debt (person A). Many graduates cannot find finical steady jobs after college or/and struggling to obtain the high price of their debt (person B).
[FIRST VERSION] Saved for Comparison
For my research essay, I will examine the large amount of student debt in the United States of America. Student debt impacts graduates negatively in American society.
Most of Americans go to college to earn a college degree, so they do not have to struggle that much in life. Americans are still not always guaranteed a steady job right away even with their degree. For the most part, what is guaranteed is being left with thousands of dollars in debt. Student debt can have major effects on Americans futures in a negative way. College graduates have to worry about getting a career, figuring out their living situation, and also saving money.
The more time spent in school, comes with more degrees. The higher degree earned comes with more education, knowledge, and better careers. It also means thousands of dollars. Holding onto a steady career is difficult without a college degree. Depending on the major the student wants to study, the price fluctuates. The tuition costs are getting so enormous in price, that college students only choice is to take out student loans.
Sources
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/29/student-loan-balances-jump-nearly-150-percent-in-a-decade.html
Essential Content of Article: This article provides the average student of student debt graduates have. The high jump of student debt America encounters. This article provides, graphs and charts to support their evidence. The percentage of America that is in student debt.
What it Proves: This article proves that that tuition increase for college education is causing problems for not only graduates but also the economy. This article also proves the delay on personal purchases due to student debt.
http://www.genfkd.org/student-debt-crisis-affecting-lives-college-graduates
Essential Content of Article: This article provides information about the student debt crisis affecting the personal lives of college graduates.
What it Proves: This article proves student debt effects many college graduates. It provides information about the impact of rising tuition costs, and the debt America is in. The price of paying back student debt monthly. This article also proves the long-term impacts of student debt.
Essential Content of Article: This article provides information on student debt and the cost of college. Poll provided on the joy college graduates have. This article provides information on the debt America is in.
What it Proves: This article proves the “entry level” average person salary in recent years was around $50,000. If only the rich paid for college it would be unfair. If college was free taxes would be very high.
Essential Content of Article: This article provides surveys on daily spending habits of young Americans. Provides information on public, private universities, and community colleges. The percentages of people who think college is and is not worth it.
What it Proves: This article proves student debt effects some graduates personal lives. Purchases from many graduates are being delayed. Student debt can cause people to take out of their savings or retirement. Student debt can cause graduates to have some troubles with paying for some necessities.
http://time.com/10577/student-loans-are-ruining-your-life-now-theyre-ruining-the-economy-too/
Essential Content of the Article: This article proves even though a person has a degree in a certain field it does not mean a career is gaurenteed. The amount of student debt America is in. The average amount of money a graduate owes. The rise of tuition and loan interest. More students are attending college.
What it Proves: This article proves that America is in $253 billion dollars of student loan debt. In the recent years the debt increased 10 percent. Not all graduates can pay back their debt in time. This article proves charts. This article proves tuition for universities rising. This article proves interest rates are crazy.
The Essential Content of the Article: This article proves that America is in trillions of dollars in student debt. Student debt is causing some graduates to delay marriage and owning a home. College tuition for both private and public universities have increased.
What it Proves: This article from Forbes focuses on a two-way argument about student loan debt. This article highlights the cost of college tuition rising. This article also highlights the different solutions people are trying to come up to help student debt.
https://www.consumerreports.org/student-loan-debt-crisis/lives-on-hold/
The Essential Content of the Article: This article proves that student loans were not always such an inconvenience, the loan companies were more generous. But after a couple laws were put in place, student debt became the most debt in America. This article proves America is in trillions of dollars in debt. This article speaks on different techniques that could help the student debt situation.
What it Proves: This article from Consumer Reports focuses on a few reasons why student debt is the worst debt. This article highlights laws that went into place that made student debt worse. This article also highlights if there was more support for public schools, billions of dollars could be made.
The Essential Content of the Article: This article proves that the number of students in college who are borrowing loans increased. This article also proves that America is in trillions of dollars in debt. This article speaks about how student debt hurts the student but it is also affecting the economy because graduates are not making as many large purchases right away.
What it Proves: This article from Forbes focuses on a few affects student debt has on Americans and the economy. This article highlights student debt can affect other generations. This article also highlights the tuition cost for college increased.
The Essential Content of the Article: This article proves that almost half of college graduates cannot find a steady job. This article proves that interest on a loan makes it even more difficult to pay back, this article mentions some states that offer interest-free student loans. This article touches on status and/or knowing people can land a person a career. This article speaks about careers not always being guaranteed even with a college degree.
What it Proves: This article from Forbes focuses on the large amount of student debt in America. This article highlights the large amount of student debt America is in. This article highlights a survey performed on a few college graduate’s unemployment percentages. This article also highlights interest rates on student loans.
https://college-education.procon.org/
The Essential Content of the Article: This article proves the average amount of debt an average college graduate contains. This article mentions that success can come with and without a degree. This article also mentions college graduates can make higher salaries but the student loans are overwhelming. Many topics are provided about college and student debt.
What it Proves: This article from college-education focuses the argument of college. This article highlights the different arguments of the pros and cons of a college degree. This article also highlights the average amount of debt an average college graduate contains. This article also provides background of the topic.
11. “Benefits of Earning a College Degree”
https://www.cbd.edu/9-benefits-college-degree/
The Essential Content of the Article: This article explains the top reasons why attending college can be beneficial. This website is used for my counter-argument.
What it Proves: This article from CBD College focuses on the benefits of college. This article points out some positives of attending college.
12. “High Paying Jobs Without a Degree”
https://christianpf.com/paying-jobs-without-degree/
The Essential Content of this Article: This article explains the different jobs a person get without a college degree.
What it Proves: This article from SEEDTIME focuses on well paying jobs that people can get without a college degree. This article speaks on the theories of college, and how it is possible for people to receive good jobs without a degree. This article also speaks about how there is more of a variety of jobs.
13. “Millennials Face Life After College”
The Essential Content of this Article: This article explains some of the challenges college graduates are facing after college. This article provides quotes from graduates who are facing troubles after graduating. This article speaks about some crisis’ graduates are having.
What it Proves: This article from CNBC focuses on some of the struggles college graduates are having after graduating. Many people say with a degree comes a career right away, but many graduates are struggling with the challenge of finding a career. This article also speaks on the large effect student debt has on college graduates.
14. “Student Loan Debt Statistics for 2018”
https://studentloanhero.com/student-loan-debt-statistics/
The Essential Content of this Article: This article explains the statistics of student debt. This article provides facts on student loan debt, public service loan forgiveness, and federal student loan portfolio.
What it Proves: This article from Student Loan Hero focuses on the statistics of student debt. This article provides facts on student loan debt, public service loan forgiveness, and federal student loan portfolio. This article also provides charts for different loan types and companies.
15. “Student Loan Debt May Not be as Bad as it Seems”
The Essential Content of this Article: This article explains some reasons why student loan debt is not as bad as it seems. This website is for my counter-argument. This article provides a couple of tips to help with student debt.
What it Proves: This article from Forbes focuses on student loan debt. This article provides information about student debt and how student debt is not so bad. This article provides information on 401k and debt balance.
Rowan Counterintuitive 
SummerGirl, you’ve taken a very big bite with your topic. Based on your stated Proposal, you intend to research a broad swath of economic issues.
• The overall amount of student debt
• The negative impacts of debt on graduates
• The expectation that a college degree will confer security against struggle
• The difficulty in finding steady work upon graduation
• The certainty of graduating in substantial debt
• The combination of worries for graduates
—career uncertainty, expense of housing, inability to save . . . .?
• The promise that higher degrees will result in better careers (and presumably salaries) to ease debt resolution
• Job instability for non-graduates
• Variability in the cost of degrees
• The inevitability of loans
Any one of these aspects of the student loan situation would probably be broad enough for a hypothesis you could cover in 3000 words.
Your first job as a researcher will be to discover the much narrower slice of your broad topic that you can effectively cover in a short paper. Obviously all the aspects are related, but which one to focus your attention on is the question your research will help you decide.
Then you can craft a meaningful hypothesis to test. I’d be most pleased if you write a first attempt at one in your White Paper before Monday.
For example: Ten years ago, the average starting salary for a college graduate with a bachelor’s degree was sufficient to retire the graduate’s loan debt within five years of graduation. Since then, the skyrocketing cost of college and the woeful job prospects for graduates have combined to stretch that repayment to a much longer span of years. In other words, college is placing a much larger burden on new graduates than it did less than a generation ago.
That you could research. And finding it to be true would be a valuable contribution to the topic you’re investigating. (I have no idea whether it’s true or not. It’s just a hypothesis.)
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SummerGirl, you’re not linking to your sources, which is a problem for your Professor, and which deprives you of an important benefit of the White Paper. This post should be a handy place for you to store all the background information you gather for your research project, including the bibliographic information that will make it easy for you later to produce your Annotated Bib.
I’ve followed the clues you left in your descriptions to what I think are likely your sources for 1 and 5. Then I linked your abbreviated titles to those sources as you should do with the rest.
They’re a good start. They collect some reasonable information on your broad topic. Perhaps some of them will survive the process of collection and culling until you settle on your final 15 sources. But most probably will not.
The Forbes articles are decidedly secondary (not primary) sources. Their authors have done no research of their own; they’re just reporting in a general way on conclusions drawn by others from their own research. If you use them as sources, you’re at best a tertiary source, and truth is lost at every stage of the process. One excellent technique for collecting good academic sources is to follow the sources back a step or two. As an example, two steps were required to get from the mention of author Sandy Baum in your Source 1 to this book:
The book itself (not the two bloggers in between who passed along tiny bits of her information before it got to you) would be a good primary source. Your Bibliography will be composed largely of the primary sources.
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Thank you for your help! Do you think that I can use something like the example you provided?
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Yes, of course you can use any advice I have to offer, SummerGirl. More likely, though, you’ll start with it or something like it and craft your own more satisfying thesis before you’re finished writing your own argument.
To be honest, I’d be delighted if all the “common knowledge” about the crushing burden of students loan debt turned out to be a myth. Sandy Baum seems willing to stake her reputation on something less than a full endorsement of all the dire news we keep hearing.
You’ll start by reading general “overview articles” by writers like Nick Clements (your Source 1), and graduate quickly to the more original sources he has depended on for his background understanding. As you examine the original material, you’ll draw your own conclusions to share. That’s when the project gets interesting and starts to feel worthwhile instead of another academic chore.
That’s my hope for you, anyway. 🙂
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SummerGirl, I’ve read your first source, the one you called “Debt-Fueled Tuition,” and I want to clarify what appears to be its Essential Content and What it Proves.
You say:
The Essential Content of the Article: This article proves that America is in trillions of dollars in student debt. Student debt is causing some graduates to delay marriage and owning a home. College tuition for both private and public universities have increased.
What it Proves: This article from Forbes focuses on a two-way argument about student loan debt. This article highlights the cost of college tuition rising. This article also highlights the different solutions people are trying to come up to help student debt.
First, let’s swap the descriptions. I think you have them out of order.
The Essential Content of the Article: This article from Forbes focuses on a two-way argument about student loan debt. This article highlights the cost of college tuition rising. This article also highlights the different solutions people are trying to come up to help student debt.
What it Proves: This article proves that America is in trillions of dollars in student debt. Student debt is causing some graduates to delay marriage and owning a home. College tuition for both private and public universities have increased.
Now, having read the article, I would say the author draws no conclusions of his own. He merely reports some general observations made by a variety of named and unnamed sources. This is the nature of an article in a popular finance magazine like Forbes. It tries to provide an overview of a broad topic for a general reader.
If you look back on this source when it’s time to polish your final paper, you won’t find anything in it you can actually cite. He does say that Americans have $1.3 trillion in student loan debt. But he’s not the source of that information. A chart like this one puts the number into an interesting perspective: Link to Chart
It also provides the name of an original source: New York Fed Consumer Credit Panel. Notice how much faster the relative size of student loan debt is growing compared to auto loans, for example.
He says student loan debt is forcing graduates to delay life events, but admits they’re anecdotal (“We hear stories.).
His explanation for why tuition has risen at private schools versus the understandable rise at public institutions is fascinating, but presumably irrelevant to your proposal. You don’t need to discuss why tuition is rising, only the consequences.
I’m not trying to pick on you, SummerGirl. You’re just the first to post, which I truly appreciate. And you’ve done a credible job of identifying an important question that’s worth researching. I’m responding in such detail as much for your classmates as for you, to begin the conversation about what qualifies as a valuable primary source for research.
I hope that was helpful and not discouraging.
I’d appreciate your reply. Thanks!
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It was very discouraging. But thanks for the feedback. I do not know where to even go from this point. I made a conference for Thursday to get me back on track.
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I’m sorry. I certainly didn’t intend to upset you. You’re not at all “off track.” It’s just that you’ve left the station headed in a general direction and haven’t selected which of the many switches to follow to a more particular destination. 3000 words is not enough to tackle the entire broad topic of student loan debt. Sandy Baum’s book on just one aspect of the topic should be evidence that the subject is too big to wrestle down to just a few pages.
Here’s an example of “where to go from this point.” Once I gathered the name Sandy Baum and her interest in Student Loan Debt from your first source, it was easy to find her book, which I shared with you. Next, I did a simple Google search for “Sandy Baum Student Loan Debt” which yielded this result in a few seconds:
Click to access Baum.pdf
16 pages of glorious first-person research without a single visit to the library. Whatever you find in her report, it will be valuable to any argument you choose to craft from it. Awesome tables that detail amounts of debt for particular years, breakdowns by ethnicity, and on and on.
Very little time investment was needed to find this first source. And we haven’t even cracked Google Scholar yet, let alone the vast resources of the Rowan Campbell Library databases!
OK for now? Less discouraged?
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Thank you!
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