My research question is very dear and important to myself, as well as almost every other college student in America.  For every college student, a large part of the college choice is how many student loans they will have to incur.  This is something that could determine the rest of my life and how it ends up going.  I believe this issue is directly related to my values, because I am a firm believer that everybody deserves the education they want.  I have always thought very liberal, especially about topics of equality, and I don't believe a family's income should affect their child's education.  To this point in my college career, I have already had to deal with the burdens of our college loan system, and it is for this reason that I firmly believe I am qualified to write about the topic.  I have experienced this firsthand, as well as seen many other people that I know be held down for the duration of their lives by just a few loans they were forced to take out back in their first or second year of college.  College debt is affecting our country every day, and it is affecting every college student every day.


The first article I looked at gives a potential solution to the college debt crisis in our country.  One of the main problems, according to the article, is the federal government's prohibition of allowing administrators to meet with peer institutions.  If this were allowed, the debt problem would not be anywhere near as bad.

Another one of the articles gets into the physical effects of such a large amount of college debt.  It primarily looks at how the economy is affected, and the effects are negative.  It talks about how there will be many less small businesses, as people will not have the money to start them up.  People will be more reluctant to buy homes and start families.

The last article I looked at looks at the opposite side.  It talks about the positive sides of student debt.  The main reasons given are that the benefit of a college education is worth it, loans help build your credit score, and that some loans actually come with repayment benefits.  These are all reasons debt could be a good thing, and the article focuses on the causes.

The major values and themes throughout the first article main revolve around the idea of providing a solution.  The purpose of the article is for the author to give his opinion on how to fix the issue of college debt.  The value seems to be one of change.

In the second article, the main theme throughout the piece is the economy.  It focuses primarily on the effects of the problem, as opposed to the problems.  The article is focused on the outside aspects that will be affected by college debt in the future, as opposed to the debt itself.  The theme that is recurring is that we need to fix the problem, or else our economy will be completely shot in due time.

The President of a university in New Hampshire, Saint Anselm College, writes the first article.  Having a university president really improves the credibility of the information within.  He is around the issue of college debt every single day, and after all of that he still knows there are problems with the system.  He has a good proposal because he knows how to balance both sides of the equation.

The second article is written by Phyllis Korkki.  She is an editor for the Business section of the New York Times.  The quotes she brings into her piece are from economics professors of high prestige universities, such as Pennsylvania State University.  Although she herself isn't the most knowledgeable about student debt, the other sources she uses are.

The last article is a piece from US News, and author Ryan Lane.  He is the senior editor for American Student Assistance, where his job is overseeing the finances.  He also graduated from Syracuse University, so he has the prior experience of being a college student dealing with loans and debt.


This research question is arguable because there are undoubtedly some people who do not believe that college debt is a problem at all.  It becomes even more arguable, however, because within the group that believes it needs fixed, there are numerous different proposed solutions.  I think the article that claims debt is actually good is interesting, because it opens up a whole new perspective that most people do not think of typically.  It disagrees with some facts from the other two articles, so they butt heads.  Having multiple perspectives on the issue is always important because it's necessary to consider the other arguments and counterpoints.  After looking at my research as a whole, especially the disagreeing article, I may need to alter my research focus.  It may become necessary to narrow down my topic even more than it currently is.

