Editor,
As news comes from Washington, D.C. about ongoing regulatory changes impacting student loan and debt management, graduate and professional students may be wondering where that leaves them.
On Wednesday, Oct. 26, the Daily Lobo reported on new legislation sponsored by the Obama administration that will, if passed, impact regulations for student loans. The proposed policies aim to benefit students through changes including caps on monthly payments and loan consolidation options.
We hope that federal and state policies will continue to prioritize educational endeavors. Unfortunately, graduate and professional students are still impacted by this year’s Budget Control Act, which eliminated subsidized Stafford loans for graduate students effective July 1, 2012. Subsidized loans do not charge interest until a student graduates. The remaining option — unsubsidized Stafford loans — accumulates interest while the student is still enrolled in school, resulting in an increased debt burden.
If the average loan size is about $7,400 over the course of four years, a student receiving annual loans at a 6.8 percent interest rate will owe $5,000 more than the student would have if the loan had been subsidized with interest deferred. In this economic climate, students may not be able to pay off this loan immediately upon graduation, in which case the cost of receiving a UNM degree is now even higher. UNM graduate and professional students took out over $20 million in subsidized loans in the 2010-2011 academic year alone. Nationally, despite the relatively low cost of tuition, New Mexico boasts one of the highest rates of student debt.
GPSA calls on UNM, private donors and the state of New Mexico to provide more assistantships and scholarships for graduate and professional students to make up for this loss. Graduate and professional students provide essential services to the University through assistantships, research and support for the core academic mission of the University. Ensuring that attending graduate school is not an undue financial hardship must be a priority as UNM moves forward during economically uncertain times.
Megan McRobert
UNM student
