Students' College Experiences Depend on Loan Debt Accrued

According to a recent study, students that have no loan debts are more likely to adopt the "play hard" kind of a lifestyle, which includes little studying and more social activities.

This is the first study that looks into how a student's loan debt can affect his or her college experiences. There are three distinctive categories that these experiences can be grouped under. Authors of the study found that all college students easily fell into one of the three categories.

Students with no loan debts fall into the first category named "play hard." Their college experiences comprise less of academics and more of partying and building relationships and networks that last beyond college life.

Students that have loan debts usually fall into the other two categories - "disengaged students" and "serious students."

The second category of 'disengaged students' includes those that feel the loan is a burden that keeps them for enjoying college life. Hence, they tend to spend less time indulging in campus activities, including studying.

The last category includes students who take up the debt as a challenge and responsibility. They work hard on their academics as well as take part in extra-curricular activities that can ensure they get a good job after college.

"These patterns could affect the social connections and networking students develop in college, where these relationships can lead to friendships, employment, marriage partners and other benefits," sociologist Daniel Rudel from Bloomington's College of Arts and Sciences, said in a press release.

For the study titled "Responsibility or Liability? Student Loan Debt and Time Use in College," researchers looked into data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Freshmen where students that were interviewed from 1999 to 2003 attended one of 28 selective U.S. institutions: nine liberal arts colleges, 14 private research universities, four public research universities and one historically black college.

Rudel suggests that Universities may want to take into consideration these findings to see how their students are coping with their financial conditions.

According to an American Student Association report, nearly 20 million Americans go to college each year, out of which 60 per cent take loans to cover college expenses.

An April report by Fast Web states that outstanding student loan debts exceeded $1 trillion in March 2012. Student loans are the number two on the loan debt list, coming second only to mortgage. The number of youngsters opting for student loans has increased by 300 per cent over the last 8 years.