Matthew Milewski Professor Rios ENC 1102H 17 March 2014 Annotated Bibliography Research Question: How does student

loan debt affect the economic opportunities of individuals? Javine, Victoria. "Financial knowledge and student loan college students." Financial Services Review Vol. 22 Issue 4 (Winter 2013): 367-387. University of Central Florida Libraries. Web. 17 March 2014. Victoria Javine conducts a study to judge how much information students have when it comes to college loans. Javine opens the article with background issue on student debt, noting that student loan debt outpaced credit card debt in 2010, and thus is becoming an increasingly serious issue. The study involved a e-mail based survey that asked students to fill out information about themselves (including their approximate amount of debt) and their knowledge of student loan programs. Her conclusions noted that increased knowledge of student loans correlated with an increase in student loan debt. Javine's study suffers from a proportionally small sample size (only 521 students out of 13,860 responded to her survey, or 3.8%), but it does indicate that knowledge of student loans is not likely to dissuade those interested in loans from getting them. Those that take loans are therefore likely to have no other choice, which means people who have loan debt are likely from a lower-income background already. This suggests that student loan debt can effectively shackle students to these sorts of backgrounds, instead of allowing them to move on from them.

Zhang, Lei. "Effects of college educational debt on graduate school attendance and early career and lifestyle choices." Education Economics Vol. 21 Issue 2 (May 2013): 154-175. University of Central Florida Libraries. Web. 17 March 2014. In "Effects of college educational debt on graduate school attendance and early career and lifestyle choices", Lei Zhang conducts a survey to see whether or not there is a link between student debt and enrollment in graduate programs or other post-bachelor degree endeavors. At the start of the article, Zhang explains that the reason debt can impact future choices may have to do with credit constraints (which make borrowing money more difficult), or debt aversion (making choices that pay off debt sooner rather than later). After conducting a survey, Zhang found that student loan had a direct negative impact on graduate school attendance for doctoral, MBA, and FP programs. He did not find any connection between student loan debt and career choices. Zhang's study would seem to point to a limited impact of student loan debt on economic opportunities. While it is true that Zhang notes a direct impact on graduate programs, these are programs that aren't typically considered initially necessary for students. Even more telling is the lack of correlation between student loan debt and future choices made by students. From career choices, to marriage, and even homeownership, there is nothing to indicate that student loan debt has any real connection.

Default: the Student Loan Documentary. Dir. Aurora Meneghello. PBS, 2011. Film. "Default: the Student Loan Documentary" examines some of the difficulties faced by those who chose to take out private loans. The film is careful to distinguish the word private, as these loans are much less forgiving than those provided by the federal government. Private loans, starting in 2005, have become exempt from consumer protection laws and are allowed to charge

accumulating interest with no bankruptcy protection or caps on fees. This essentially puts the individuals interviewed in the film into tens of thousands of dollars of rapidly accumulating debt, making it difficult or impossible to reasonably pay off. People interviewed in "Default" have taken to protesting the situation as a result of the unfair situation. "Default" paints an intimidating picture of the student loan situation, but there are some important caveats to its portrayal. For one, private loans only make up a fraction of all total loans, with federal loans being the most predominantly used. However, when it comes to private student loans, it seems that student debt can have a wide-ranging and potentially disabling effect on individuals after college. One individual in the film was unable to both pay rent and his student debt, and the nature of compounding interest means this problem only grows over time.