talbotlucas.org: a word to the wise is sufficient

With only two weeks before the semester begins, University of California officials today informed students that their tuition and fees for the coming year will be increased--dramatically. For many graduate students who study on the semester system and whose fall semester bills are due on 20 August, that's two weeks' notice that they need to come up with several thousand dollars.

How did we get to this point? To pass the California budget, state officials supposedly trimmed approximately $410 million from the budget of the University of California. To put that figure in perspective, it's roughly the budget of the entire Berkeley campus, the second largest campus in the U. Cal system. Professional schools--such as the law schools--have been the hardest hit, and law students at UCLA have been hit with an increase of 47% over last year.

While I understand the difficulties that a state budget crisis poses for state schools, the news was difficult to swallow for a lot of students who rely heavily on financial aid, and who measure their monthly budget dollars very carefully. Although federal student loan interest rates are at or near historically low levels, there's a cap on those loan amounts, and many students and their families are having to turn to supplemental loans from lenders who charge credit card-like rates. For someone without a long credit history, or whose credit might be shaky, that can translate to 18% (compared with federal student loan rates in the neighborhood of 3%).