Student Ben Mills sits at a table at Satellite Coffee, poring over a book for his French 200 class.
Mills is here at least four times a week, studying the material he needs to know to graduate in May.
Mills, who is majoring in international politics, found out last week that he was accepted to Denver University to study international relations as a graduate student.
But this week's task is more daunting - finding a way to pay for it.
"I guess if there is any time to jump into the hole, it might as well be for grad school," he said. "I've accepted it. I'm not happy about it, but I've accepted it. I'm sure I'll feel the burden when I'm there and barely scraping by, but for now I've accepted it, and I've got a decent scholarship that is going to help out a little bit."
College graduates might be the hardest hit by the slumping economy, said Don Coes, professor of economics.
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Businesses will cut back on their expansion but will not want to lose valuable and experienced workers, he said.
"In fact, that is an expensive thing to do," he said. "If somebody has been at your company for five or 10 years, they are valuable, and ruling them out may really mess up your situation."
The good news: Bad times don't last forever, and the economy will get better, Coes said.
According to statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor, the country's unemployment rate rose from 4.8 percent to 5.1 percent in March. That same month, the number of unemployed people in the U.S. reached 434,000.
"We've got the worst of both things. We have the prices that have gone up, and the level of employment - it has leveled off," he said. "It used to be rising, and the unemployment rate is beginning to creep up."
Coes said a high unemployment rate might come from discouraged job-seekers looking for other options.
The question now is how the change is going to affect students like Mills as they prepare to enter graduate school.
Barbara Carver, UNM assistant dean of graduate studies, said it is not uncommon for college graduates to go back to school when the economy is bad.
"Just because they can bone up on their job skills and become better qualified to compete in the job force," she said. "So, frequently, when the economy is bad, people return to school to get a graduate degree based on precedent. It is a national trend - it is not just something that happens here at UNM."
Carver said a graduate degree prepares students to meet the challenges of a competitive work force. Graduate school can be expensive, but students interested in getting a degree usually don't have a problem finding the funds, she said.
"If a student is really determined, they can find a way," she said.
For now, Mills is trying not to think about it. He has final exams to worry about, he said.
"In the long-term, I think it's a cyclical thing," he said. "We're kind of hitting a rough patch, but changes will be made, because it is a widely acknowledged issue on the public's conscience. It can't keep going badly without the public demanding that something be done. Then again, I have a lot of blind faith in our government."
