UC students face increasing student loan rates

http://www.dailycal.org/http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif2012/07/23/the-affordability-of-education-with-current-federal-loan-rates/


As of July 1, new borrowers of federal graduate student loans became responsible for paying the interest accrued on the loan while still in school and immediately afterward. At the same time, undergraduates who take out a federally subsidized loan in the next two years became responsible for the interest accrued six months following graduation.

The two significant changes in federal student aid policies are estimated to cost students an additional $21 billion over the next decade.

For a public university system that has seen tuition increase 84 percent since 2008, is teetering on the edge of an additional $125 million dollar budget gap for the upcoming academic year and whose financial stability for the 2013-14 academic year hinges on voters passing Brown’s tax plan, these changes in federal student aid policies may close the door for not only Namiranian but many more students.

Recent borrowing trends of students supported by middle-income and upper-middle incomes — defined by the university as incomes between $99,000-$123,000 and $123,000 -$148,000 — indicate that these changes may affect studenhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifts of these incomes the most. According to a UC report on student financial support published in April 2012, these students’ levels of borrowing have increased more rapidly than students in other income brackets since 2008.

These students, who often don’t qualify for state-funded or UC-supported grant programs, made up about 17 percent of the campus undergraduate student population in 2010 — the smallest proportion of any income group on campus. In 2010, that number at all 10 UC campuses was about 18 percent, while in 2001, students supported by middle and upper-middle-class incomes made up about 24 percent of the UC student body, according to the UC 2011 Accountability Report (http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/accountability/index/3.5.3).