Do You Know What You Owe? Students' Understanding of Their Student Loans

Using a data set that augments a student survey with administrative data from the Iowa State University Office of Financial Aid, the authors posed two questions: Do students know whether they have student loans? Do students know how much they owe on outstanding student loans? We used logistic and or...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of student financial aid 2014-01, Vol.44 (2)
Main Authors: Andruska, Emily A, Hogarth, Jeanne M, Fletcher, Cynthia Needles, Forbes, Gregory R, Wohlgemuth, Darin R
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
College Students
Debt (Financial)
Familiarity
Financial Services
Iowa
Knowledge Level
Money Management
Predictor Variables
Probability
Regression (Statistics)
Self Disclosure (Individuals)
State Universities
Student Attitudes
Student Characteristics
Student Loan Programs
Student Records
Student Surveys
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Using a data set that augments a student survey with administrative data from the Iowa State University Office of Financial Aid, the authors posed two questions: Do students know whether they have student loans? Do students know how much they owe on outstanding student loans? We used logistic and ordered logit regressions to answer these questions. Results suggest that although the majority of students are aware that they owe on student loans, many underestimate the amount they owe. One eighth of students in the current study reported no student debt when, in fact, they had a loan. Over a quarter of the students underestimated the amount they owed by less than $10,000, and nearly one tenth of students underestimated the amount that they owed by more than $10,000. This article discusses the roles that counselors, educators, and policy makers can play in improving students' understanding of their student loan debt.
ISSN:0884-9153
0884-9153
DOI:10.55504/0884-9153.1222