We have reported that graduate students are being slammed hard by the high costs associated with their education, to the point many need food stamps.

University of Virgina student Leopold Spohngellert takes a hard look at the realities of graduate student finances of his school, focusing on its medical and law school programs.

…Recently, the University’s Board of Visitors approved several graduate tuition increases, ranging from 1.2 to 19.6 percent. These tuition increases are in line with peer institutions, and they will help to raise University faculty salaries, but tuition hikes makes the threat of student debt more severe.

Unlike undergraduate tuition, where many forms of federal aid are available, graduate students have fewer routes for financial support.

“[The only financial aid] graduate students are eligible for from the federal government is an unsubsidized direct loan and a Grad PLUS loan,” said Jennifer Huvley, director of financial aid at the Law School.

Though many parents help shoulder the cost of undergraduate tuition, the financial burden of graduate school often falls completely upon students themselves.

Dennis Snyder, assistant director of financial aid at the Medical School, said for most graduate students, the only viable way to pay tuition is through loans.

“For medical school, loans are a necessary option,” Snyder said.

The Medical School encourages students to minimize the amount of loans they take out and live frugally if they have less money to spend, Snyder said.

University graduate schools use a variety of strategies to help students manage their debt. At the Law School, every student who has taken out a loan is required to complete an online counseling service and attend in-person counseling with Huvley. As graduation approaches, students are required to complete online counseling and meet with Huvley again to assess how they will manage their debt once they graduate.

As most students in medical school cannot work given the workload, the Medical School’s efforts to curtail student debt come largely in the form of offering financial advice to its students.

“The large part of our effort is explaining to our students how to manage their debt once they leave medical school,” Snyder said.
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The Law School’s Virginia Loan Forgiveness Program helps attorneys in the public sector who make less than $75,000 dollars annually. Those who make less than $55,000 dollars and graduated in 2013 or after are eligible to receive benefits which cover 100 percent of law school loans.

“If all of those [Law school graduates] went to big law firm jobs then, who would represent that defendant in the county jail who can’t afford legal representation?” Huvley said.