“Some People Don’t Like Financial Aid, ‘Cause They Don’t Know How It Works, Completely”: Student and Staff Perspectives on Student Debt

Conversations about student debt frequently target attendees of four-year and professional institutions, since higher-cost institutions are more likely to lead to high levels of debt. While some research has focused on financial aid and college funding at community colleges, we have comparatively limited scholarship regarding conceptualizations of student debt. Some scholars have studied financial aid staff at community colleges, but research has been primarily quantitative in nature.This study remedies that gap by offering a qualitative perspective about student debt, pairing student and staff views and analyzing them by investigating the social meaning of the money, or what student debt means to students. The study location is a large community college in Texas. Students reported fear regarding debt and some staff shared concerns about possible misuse of aid, through students failing to meet satisfactory academic requirements, taking more debt than needed for living expenses, or using financial aid for personal expenditures.