To develop a deeper understanding of Gen Z, ScholarshipOwl conducts a survey each month to evaluate key traits impacting highschool and faculty college students.
With Supreme Courtroom choices looming concerning the Biden Administration’s plans for pupil debt forgiveness, our February 2023 survey targeted on pupil mortgage debt expectations in addition to a greater various to loans – making use of for scholarships. This analysis is very related as we speak, provided that 30% of undergraduates tackle federal pupil debt, and 13% of scholars carry pupil loans from banks or different non-public sources.
Who participated within the survey?
In February 2023, ScholarshipOwl surveyed over 8,000 highschool and college-aged college students on the ScholarshipOwl scholarship platform to study extra in regards to the impression of pupil debt on as we speak’s Gen Z college students. A complete of 8,155 college students responded to the survey. 33% of the respondents had been undergraduates, primarily faculty freshmen; 58% had been highschool college students, with the overwhelming majority highschool seniors; 6% recognized themselves as graduate college students; and 4% recognized themselves as grownup/non-traditional college students.
Survey questions
The primary survey query was “Which greatest describes how a lot pupil debt you anticipate to hold once you graduate along with your bachelor’s diploma?” Respondents had been requested to not embrace anticipated debt from graduate faculty.
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The overwhelming majority (90%) responded that they anticipate to hold some quantity of undergraduate pupil debt upon commencement, with simply 10% indicating they didn’t anticipate to graduate with any pupil debt. The complete breakdown:
10% don’t anticipate to graduate with undergraduate pupil debt
6% anticipate to have as much as $5000 in undergraduate pupil debt
9% anticipate to have $5000 – $10,000 in undergraduate pupil debt
13% anticipate to have $10,000 – $20,000 in undergraduate pupil debt
14% anticipate to have $10,000 – $20,000 in undergraduate pupil debt
13% anticipate to have $20,000 – $30,000 in undergraduate pupil debt
11% anticipate to have $30,000 – $40,000 in undergraduate pupil debt
9% anticipate to have $40,000 – $50,000 in undergraduate pupil debt
11% anticipate to have $50,000 – $75,000 in undergraduate pupil debt
9% anticipate to have $75,000 – $100,000 in undergraduate pupil debt
7% anticipate to have over $100,000 in undergraduate pupil debt
As a follow-up query, we requested, “What number of years do you anticipate it would take you to repay your undergraduate pupil debt?” Nearly all of respondents (61%) believed that they’d be freed from their pupil debt inside 10 years. This expectation vastly differs from the stark actuality of pupil debt. A survey of over 60,000 respondents performed by One Wisconsin Institute indicated that the common pupil takes over 20 years to repay their undergraduate pupil loans.
The complete breakdown of our contributors’ responses concerning undergraduate pupil debt:
11% don’t anticipate to graduate with pupil debt.
14% anticipate their pupil debt to be paid in 1 to three years
21% anticipate their pupil debt to be paid in 4 to six years
26percentexpect their pupil debt to be paid in 7 to 10 years
13% anticipate their pupil debt to be paid in 11 to fifteen years
8% anticipate their pupil debt to be paid in 16 to twenty years
6% anticipate it would take greater than 20 years to repay their pupil debt
The ultimate survey query requested was “On common, what number of scholarships do you apply for every month?” Right here, we’ve got some excellent news. 69% of respondents indicated that they apply for no less than 4 scholarships per thirty days – and of this quantity, 22% apply for no less than 11 scholarships per thirty days. These outcomes show that almost all college students who use the ScholarshipOwl platform to use for scholarships apply for considerably extra scholarships year-round as in comparison with the scholars and oldsters surveyed in a 2022 Sallie Mae research. This research discovered that simply 48% of respondents looked for and utilized for scholarships all year long.
The complete breakdown of responses:
5% of respondents indicated that, on common, they apply for lower than 1 scholarship per thirty days
26% apply for 1 to three scholarships per thirty days
29% apply for 4 to six scholarships per thirty days
19% apply for 7 to 10 scholarships per thirty days
7% apply for 11 to fifteen scholarships per thirty days
15% apply for greater than 15 scholarships per thirty days
To a sure extent, these outcomes aren’t stunning, provided that the survey was performed amongst college students who use the ScholarshipOwl platform to use for scholarships. As such, this inhabitants of Gen Z college students do proactively apply for scholarships to scale back their out-of-pocket faculty price. What’s attention-grabbing is that the Sallie Mae research discovered that 40% of scholars didn’t obtain any scholarships and/or grants to scale back their price of school – however 68% of those college students didn’t even apply for them.
Clearly, prioritizing making use of for scholarships could make a major impression on a pupil’s skill to pay for faculty, which in flip reduces the chance of needing to depend on pupil loans.
Key Takeaways for Gen Z college students
The survey outcomes point out that Gen Z college students vastly underestimate how lengthy it would take them to pay-off their undergraduate pupil debt. Resulting from this, college students are woefully unprepared for the fact of graduating with pupil debt, and its impacts on their future.
College students who graduate with pupil debt delay main life milestones. Based on a 2022 nationwide survey of over 5,000 adults performed by CNBC/Momentive, 81% of adults with pupil loans report such delays, with 33% delaying shopping for a house, 40% delaying investments, and 38% delaying saving for his or her retirement. 14% postpone getting married, and 16% postpone having kids. Scholar debt creates different burdens that additionally weigh closely on debtors, with 62% of respondents indicating opposed impacts on their psychological well being.
Gen Z college students want to raised perceive how pupil debt can impression their future. Households, educators, and steering counselors will be a part of this answer, by guaranteeing that college students not solely are extra educated about pupil loans, but in addition by serving to Gen Z college students prioritize making use of for scholarships as an alternative choice to loans.
How can manufacturers assist?
Whereas there are numerous federal and state grants obtainable for low-income college students, these packages sometimes solely cowl tuition prices. Room and board is usually dearer than tuition at public universities. And middle-income college students obtain little assist from federal and state packages.
Scholarships are another that may help college students throughout the earnings spectrum, but there will not be practically sufficient scholarships obtainable to fulfill the necessity.
Manufacturers will be a part of the answer by providing scholarship campaigns that help college students, whereas additionally fulfilling their enterprise and philanthropic targets. Manufacturers can entry the ScholarshipOwl for Enterprise platform to streamline the scholarship marketing campaign creation course of. As soon as a scholarship marketing campaign is launched, the scholarship is broadcast out to the hundreds of thousands of scholars who apply for scholarships on the ScholarshipOwl platform. The campaigns will be promoted by way of electronic mail as effectively, serving to to maximise the variety of candidates for every scholarship marketing campaign. Success metrics are available by way of our superior analytics dashboard, enabling manufacturers to achieve insights that may inform future scholarship campaigns.
To search out out extra about creating and launching a scholarship marketing campaign, go to enterprise.scholarshipowl.com.
