U grad students facing big tuition hike

Undergraduates catch a break in the next University of Minnesota budget that would keep their tuition increases low despite a cut in state funding.

Graduate and professional students won't have the same luck.

The students who make up about 40 percent of the student body are the hidden victims of a bad-news budget that the Board of Regents is expected to vote on Wednesday.

While in-state undergraduate students will face 3.1 percent tuition hikes, most grad students could see a 7.5 percent increase in their bills this year. First-year medical students' in-state rate may rise 5.2 percent, to $32,328. Newbie Minnesotan law students could pay 15.3 percent more than their counterparts did last year.

"So often, the focus is on undergraduate students," said Kristi Kremers, president of the U's Graduate and Professional Student Assembly. "At the same time, we're 40 percent of the student population. And we also face problems with indebtedness. It's actually heightened because many of us come in with pre-existing debt."

At least one regent said he'd "find it difficult to support" the proposed budget because of its impact on graduate and professional students:

"Given our special commitment to graduate and professional education, we have to look at that issue deeply and more importantly than we do the undergraduate rates," Regent John Frobenius said at a recent meeting.

Who pays what?

Many people expect that grad students attend school for close to free, but that's not true for all.

Students getting doctorates in the sciences, for example, often hold teaching or research positions that pay their way. Students earning master's degrees more often don't.

New data from the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study show that two-thirds of all doctoral students received financial support from the institution they were attending in 2007-08. Compare that with just 21.4 percent of master's students.

"The reality is, it depends on the program and the type of degree," said Nathan Bell, the Council of Graduate Schools' director of research and policy analysis. "In some areas, it's a very small percentage [that receive funding]. I personally think that's an issue we should address."

Thomas Sanford is about to earn degrees in educational policy and administration and applied economics, so he understands perfectly what's happening to his funding: Because of departmental budget cuts caused by reduced state funding, his assistantship will be sliced in half.

This comes in year three of his studies and at a bad time. His wife just lost her teaching position, and they have a 3-month-old son.

Sanford said he can't afford to take out loans, so he's working out his options. "No. 1, am I going to be able to finish the program?" he said. "No. 2, when am I going to finish if I have to take another job?"

At the U, 41 percent of Twin Cities graduate students left with loans in 2006. The average debt was $30,746, according to a report by Graduate and Professional Student Assembly. For professional students, the amounts were at least double that for 2006.

University of Minnesota Provost Thomas Sullivan said the U provides more aid to its graduate and professional students than other schools. He pointed out that the proposed budget includes more than $215 million for them.

"I know no other university that has that amount of fellowship and scholarship increases to graduate students and professional students," he recently told a regents committee.

The U provides about 5,000 graduate students financial support.

At several regents' request, the U is now compiling more specific data on how different grad and professional students finance their education and how the proposed tuition increases would affect them.

"If they increase tuition but increase the grant support to the point that it comes out as a wash, it would do a lot to ease people's fears," said Christina Brakken-Thal, a student in the Medical School's combined M.D./Ph.D. training program and a new student representative to the Board of Regents.

A huge factor

Cost was "a huge factor" in Kevin Lampone's decision about where to attend law school. His first choice was the University of Minnesota, but other schools offered him enough in scholarships to cover tuition completely. Then he learned that the U would cover half.

"If I hadn't gotten half paid for, it would have been a very difficult decision," said the 30-year-old Minneapolis resident, who starts at the U in the fall.

There will be more students like Lampone in the Law School's entering class as the school raises both tuition and aid, said Dean David Wippman.

The school decided to raise tuition by 15.3 percent for first-year, in-state students, bringing the total to about $26,500. The move is meant "to redress what has, over the years, become something of an imbalance between resident and nonresident tuition," he said. "We actually think we need to do the increase in order to remain competitive."

Most of the revenues gained through the tuition increase will go toward student scholarships, he said. The school will likely give out about $4.7 million to first-year students beginning in the fall -- up 61.7 percent from 2006-07.

The school uses scholarships to recruit top students in "an extremely competitive marketplace," said Patrice Schaus, assistant dean of administration and finance. She finds them to be more effective than slightly lower tuition.

"What we hear from the students, they like to receive a scholarship. It feels more prestigious to be given a scholarship," she said.

Like students in other fields, Lampone said the amount he'll take out in loans would partially determine his job after graduation. He hopes to work in public law.

"I was concerned that if I took out too much, I'd have to go to work for a law firm because I would need to have that additional income," he said. "The cost definitely affects what kinds of jobs you can make work."

Jenna Ross • 612-673-7168