Higher Education Must Fill the Void in Student Financial Management
This fall, thousands of college students started a new chapter in their lives. I can’t think of a better decision they could have made, because a college degree is an absolute necessity rather than a mere option.
October 18th, 2007 at 5:51 pm
Good essay, incorporating many of the common statistical patterns that point to the lack of college student financial literacy, as well as some suggestions about how to address it. I particularly appreciated the suggestion to promote the use of debit cards on campus, as opposed to credit cards. Of course, this would force students to only buy what they in fact can afford, and there are few societal models of this behavior for our students to emulate. Students would need to accurately evaluate their dominate culture as unhealthy and unfit relative to personal financial management, and blaze their own “I am going to be different” trail if they hope to avoid the perils of the unnecessary credit web.