Formal Research Proposal
Brian Cross
1/07/22
Professor Rachel
ENG 170
Minor Assignment 1 Research Proposal
The topic I will be choosing to write about is the cons that come with a four-year college degree that can easily be dropped to three years with unnecessary GE’s taken out of the picture. There are a lot of negative effects that arise from trying to complete 120 credits in four years. My reason for discussing this topic is because of my own experiences and the individual experiences I have had with my sister with anxiety and depression. I am a student that is trying to graduate in three years over four and let me tell you it is nearly impossible with the workload you receive, but I will surely get it done. Another reason this topic turns a lightbulb in my head is that I am big into finance and find better ways for our economy to properly save as much money as you can. One reason SUNY New Paltz needs to address this issue is that at the start of college 32% of people have anxiety by the end of that year 37% have anxiety. The number is high enough, to begin with, but when you think about almost 40% of college kids having anxiety, it is mind-blowing. The same thing is seen with depression the numbers go up throughout the school year. I think a lot of this has to do with the number of credits you need that are in no context of what you are studying. My lead research questions are about the dilemmas that come with graduation in four years rather than three. Some questions I would like to answer are how beneficial it could be mentally, physically, and economically. I know a lot already about this topic since I did a presentation on economic inequality last semester in ENG 160. I know that 56% of kids cannot afford college and 65% of students graduate with student debt. The average amount of years a student goes to college in five years 8 months. Low-income students are impacted the hardest that do not receive financial aid. Low-income families cannot afford 95% of colleges. The person I am going to be interviewing is my friend at Suny New Paltz that is in his first year. He also found it striking when he saw he had to work his way up to 90 GE. I chose this person because he came to college as a sophomore, and he will still attend school for a little over three years. He does not have much expertise in this type of stuff, but it will be nice to hear it from a different point of view and a kid with a low income. I will likely be using two articles from the SUNY New Paltz library. One article is titled “The meaning of money: Perceptual differences between college counselors and low-income families about college costs and financial aid,” by McDonough, Patricia M; Calderone, Shannon. The other article is titled “The Escalating Cost of College” by Sobel, Ann E. K.