The Sophomore year requirement of STEM EE Scholars revolves around the Capstone project which is a 40hr research project to be presented at the end of the year. Since the project should be based on your major, I ventured into the business side of research and chose a topic on Finance. My project focuses on the spending habits and financial knowledge of students living independently in college.
I chose this topic because currently, the student loan debt reaches up to 1.53 trillion dollars (Nitro College), and as most students aren’t lucky enough to have FAFSA bestow a glorious amount of money upon them, we all seem to be in the same boat. Also, in September the Student Debt Crisis will hit Capitol Hill in hopes to resolve small issues in the crisis (Forbes), however, the process takes time which is why it’s important to have a game plan.
Throughout my research, I hope to get a glimpse of student’s spending habits by watching their BuckID cash and dining dollar amount throughout the semesters. Comparing the trends of first years and second years along with aligning their spending with their household income should result in a good representation of how students manage their money. By comparing different age ranges I can see how students develop financial awareness overtime as they try to be more cautious towards spending when trying to pay off student debt. Keeping in mind that although most students are not financially independent from their parents yet, their lifestyle is.
Nitro College- https://www.nitrocollege.com/research/average-student-loan-debt
Forbes- https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2019/09/10/student-loans-consumers-crisis/#3ab04e52224d