The Idea of an Essay, Volume 3

Research Writing 153 payment for student loans can be negotiated based on a person’s circumstances, but repaying a loan can be far more costly to a family if the head of household has not obtained gainful employment as the result of earning their degree. Clearly this type of debt overload is not easy to avoid for most parent students. Acquiring debt is nearly inescapable for most students to begin with. Providing for a family, while paying for an expensive education, seems impossible to do without going into some debt, but it can be done. Having debt can be necessary, and the option should not be completely rejected. The best approach for avoiding financial hardship is researching and filling out applications in order to access the billions of dollars available every year for college students in America (specifically minority and nontraditional students). Operating on a tight budget while providing for a family can be overwhelming and feel demoralizing. Traditional students are only responsible for themselves, which allows their budget to stretch further than nontraditional students who have children. Financial hardship can create a sense of inferiority, which in reality may be self-imposed. However, instead of adopting a dejected position appreciating the many benefits that being a student has on the family will help sustain the fortitude needed to thrive. College educated parents tend to have more stable homes than non-educated parents. According to Nadine Van Stone, Ron J. Nelson and Joanne Niemann, in their essay “Poor Single Mother College Student’s View on the Effects of Some Primary Sociological and Psychological Belief Factors on Their Academic Success”- Journal of Higher Education, children whose parents were enrolled in college while parenting, have better communication skills. These children tend to benefit from the experience, rather than suffer because of it, they are more open-minded and tolerant, they tend to be less sexist, and more resourceful, they are more ambitious than other children, and have higher aspirations. These children also tend to be more understanding, less defensive and more likely to ask for help. If attention is focused on family welfare as well as academia, single parent students face a challenge that can be, and is, mutually beneficial to themselves and their children. With all of the hurdles and barriers that nontraditional parents face, both in and out of school, financial stress and peer acceptance should not be the factors by which they determine their future. The