The Burden of Debt: Undergraduate Students’ Experiences with Paying for Their Education

This article considers how undergraduate students make meaning from their experiences with debt. Findings from focus groups with students across four campuses within a public university system in the Midwest centered on three key areas: (1) perceived versus actual costs of attending college, varying for students across institutions (2) feelings about carrying debt, centering on the perceived reality and burden of debt, and (3) effects of debt on...