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Loan changes will hit college students hard
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College students are facing a roughly $20 billion increase in the cost of their federal loans, despite a much-heralded deal in Washington to contain the expense of higher education.
Starting Sunday, students hoping to earn the graduate degrees that have become mandatory for many white-collar jobs will become responsible for paying the interest on their federal loans while they are in school and immediately after they graduate. That means they'll have to pay an extra $18 billion out of pocket over the next decade.
Meanwhile, the government will no longer cover the interest on undergraduate loans during the six months after students finish school. That's expected to cost them more than $2 billion.
These changes have received little attention as lawmakers instead focus on preventing a spike in interest rates on federal student loans. They are the fallout of earlier political battles and compromises over broader issues, such as the federal budget and the national debt ceiling.
These changes are forcing students such as Clarise McCants to make tough choices about how to pursue academic goals without jeopardizing financial security.
"I don't want to hastily make a decision that could waste thousands of dollars I don't have," said Ms. McCants, who said she will have to put off graduate school after finishing her Howard University undergraduate degree this spring. "That could kind of prove disastrous for my finances."
Much of the recent debate about the nation's soaring student debt burden has centered on how to prevent the interest rate on new federally subsidized undergraduate loans from doubling Sunday to 6.8 percent. President Barack Obama has recently made the issue part of his stump speech at colleges nationwide, while Republican presidential rival Mitt Romney also came out in support of the measure.
This week, Senate leaders announced that they had finally reached a compromise on how to pay the estimated $6 billion cost of freezing the rate for one year. Congress is expected to approve the deal by today.
But the deal's benefits are being blunted by the two changes that will saddle students with higher costs. Lawmakers ended a longtime program that pays interest on federally subsidized loans for six months after a college student graduates. The change affects new loans issued through July 2014.
Students who take out these loans over the next year will get the lower interest rate -- but that amount will be charged to their bill as soon as they throw their graduation caps in the air. Students who apply for federal loans next year will be hit with a double whammy: a higher interest rate that begins after graduation.
"It really makes the loans kind of unpredictable and hard to understand for students and families when these changes are happening through the budget process," said Megan McClean, managing director of policy and federal relations for the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.
The outlook for students pursuing advanced degrees is even more grim. As of Sunday, Uncle Sam will no longer pay the interest on new graduate loans while students are in school and for six months after they finish. The change comes as government data show that the average annual cost of a master's degree and professional programs in law and medicine has jumped by double digits. Enrollment in graduate programs has risen by 33 percent since 2000, to 2.8 million students.
The graduate loan subsidy is a casualty of last summer's debate over the federal debt ceiling. Lawmakers eliminated the program to cover a shortfall in funding loans for low-income students.
First Published June 29, 2012 12:00 am
