Literature Review #4

"The Impact of Undergraduate Debt on the Graduate School Enrollment of STEM Baccalaureates"

Malcom, Lindsey E., and Alicia Dowd. "The impact of undergraduate debt on the graduate school enrollment of STEM baccalaureates." The Review of Higher Education 35.2 (2012): 265-305.

In "The Impact of Undergraduate Debt on the Graduate School Enrollment of STEM Baccalaureates," the authors discuss how heavy borrowing for schooling can affect further schooling and future investments. They explore the question of whether undergraduate debt, for those in STEM fields, affects application into graduate school. 

Lindsey Malcom is the Associate Director for Research and Policy at the Center for Urban Education in the USC Rossier School of Education. Most of her research has involved analyzing the relationship between minority students in STEM fields, the financial aid provided to these students, and their

Lindsey E. Malcom

Alicia C. Dowd

educational outcomes. Her main focuses have been educational equity in STEM and gender equity among minority students.

Alicia Dowd is a senior research associate at Penn State's Center for the Study of Higher Education and is also a professor of education at PSU. Most of her research focuses on problems involving racial equity in postsecondary outcomes. Dowd's research has enabled her to identify several factors that affect student experiences and their drive towards attaining a higher degree.

Malcom and Dowd's roles and involvement in education makes them credible sources for my research paper. The problems they focus on exploring and explaining through their research connect to one of my main ideas, which is that debt falls heavily on non-affluent students, affecting various aspects of their lives. 

Key Terms:

• "Investment Decisions:" making decisions based on one's funds; how much can one spend based on their current economic situation and how it will affect them.
• "Baccalaureates:" one who has attained a college bachelor degree.
• "STEM:" science, technology, engineering and mathematics. 

Quotations:

• "Increases in college participation among low-income students and students from underrepresented racial-ethnic minority groups in the second half of the 20th century indicate that the federal role in promoting equity had been a partial success" (Malcom & Dowd 266-267).
• "The estimates of the negative effect of typical debt, as measured by the ATT, ranged between 13.8% and 10.0% among Latinos, African Americans, and Asians, who were all less likely to enroll in graduate school than their counterparts who did not borrow" (Malcom & Dowd 289).
• "For Latinos, the negative effect of heavy borrowing on graduate school enrollment is larger than the effect of typical borrowing" (Malcom & Dowd 293).
• "The insignificant effect of heavy debt among African Americans and Asian could provide evidence that graduate degree aspirations can endure heavy borrowing for students who have concrete career plans and are willing to borrow to the extent necessary to realize those plans" (Malcom & Dowd 294).

Value:
This article has provided me with useful information on the relationship between debt and application into graduate school. Because the researchers focus on minority students in STEM fields, I believe that the data and information presented can support my research question.