How do attitudes about debt affect postsecondary completion for Latino students?

A report entitled Debt, Doubt, and Dreams: Understanding the Latino College Completion Gap strives to answer this question. As part of a Lumina Foundation grant to study the relationship between debt, achievement and equity in higher education, with a specific focus on Latino students, this research analyzes 1,500 surveys of individuals who started, but did not complete, a college program.

This report was conducted by the UNC School of Law in collaboration with the UNC Center for Community Capital and UnidosUS and lays out current information and statistics regarding Latinos in higher education and the Latino debt aversion narrative.

“We are grateful to Lumina Foundation for their commitment to funding this research and to our research partners at UnidosUS and the UNC Center for Community Capital,” said Kate Sablosky Elengold, assistant professor of law. “The ability to bring together minds from law, policy, social science and the community allows for a truly multi-disciplinary approach to the complex and knotty problem of equity in higher education.”

Read the complete Carolina Story to learn about the findings of this report…Opens in new window