Research Blog 8: Interview

I interviewed my roommate Meghan about the impact of privatized student loans on an individual's mental health. I chose to speak with her because of the struggles she has experienced with anxiety and finances since I have lived with her. Through our interview, it appears that Meghan is a prime example of a student loan victim. She pays for her own education via students loans suggested to her through the Rutgers student aid office, and incurs multiple other monthly expenses associated with renting a home (ie. rent, food, gas/electric, water, internet, phone). She stated that she works two part time jobs during the week in addition to a 12 credit course load. During the course of our conversation, her nervousness and anxiety in regards to her finances were evidenced through statements such as, "I work 35 hours a week for what? $250 at the end of that week? That doesn't even begin to make a dent in the kind of debt I'm dealing with." Meghan additionally mentioned that the amount of time she spends at work has affected her performance in school. Despite being a third year college student, Meghan has only accumulated 33 credits. She says, "I just don't know how they can expect us to keep up with school when some of us have to work huge amounts of hours just to cover our day to day expenses, forget long term payments. I've failed classes just because my professor's don't want to give me an extension when I have a lot of hours at work. But I need that money, so I guess there's not much I can do." This example of Meghan's performance in school perfectly illustrates Pedersen's concept of stress carry-over whereby stress in one area of life impacts another aspect of life. However, her financial anxiety has impacted her in other non-academic ways as well. After her first year of college, Meghan mentioned that she began drinking to excess which in turn led to a semester of failed courses. She explains, "the stress of it all just became too much. It was much easier to just have a good time and not think about it". This provides another great example of stress carry-over where Meghan's financial anxieties affected Meghan's mental health leading to substance abuse which in turn negatively impacted her academic performance. The last point that Meghan made in our interview regarded campus academic and student counseling services. After being put on academic probation for a semester and meeting with an advisor regarding her academic performance, she was given a referral to the campus's counseling services to speak with a counselor to manage her stress. This particular experience illuminates the concept of stress individuation. The current practices in place to help students manage with stress, much of which stems from finances (in this case in particular), do not address the root of the problem but instead individualize the problem and position the stress and anxiety ridden individuals as what Hacker has termed, personal responsibility crusaders.

Prior to researching the topic of student loan privatization and the effects it has on an individual's mental health, I did not realize how relevant this topic was to virtually every individual's college experience. Not only did I not realize how wide spread this problem is, but I did not realize that it would effect someone so close to me. Meghan has experienced many of the ramifications of student loan privatization that I have encountered through my research and provides a prime example of why privatization along with it's high interest rates and corrupt practices should be exposed and reformed.