Across the country, graduate student debt has grown significantly in recent years. Funding from Midwest states has consistently fallen since 2000, according to an April 6 article in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

As a result of some federal grants dying, some operating costs multiplying and many campuswide enrollments continuing to grow, graduate students have been the first denied federal student loans.

Among doctoral programs, money often flows first to fields of science, technology and medicine. For many students in other fields, borrowing is the only way forward, according to the article.

The toll on black doctoral students has grown severely. According to the article, not only do blacks who enter universities face more economic hardships, but the academic fields with the highest black enrollment, such as LAS and education have come up against the greatest financial obstacles in the past 10 years. Those same fields have generated the heaviest doctoral debt.

Here at the University, the graduate student program has not experienced increased denial of federal loan applications to black students, said Victor Martinez, associate director of the Office of Student Financial Aid, adding that the program isn’t based on color.

“It has nothing to do with a student’s race or ethnic origin,” he said. “It’s based on need and eligibility.”

Dan Mann, director of the Office of Student Financial Aid said the loan limit for students at the University throughout their educational career is $138,500. The total amount of potential loans a student can have includes those taken out as an undergraduate and a graduate student.

“After a student reaches the aggregate Stafford Loan limit, they may borrow from the Graduate PLUS Loan program or a private loan program,” Mann said. “I’m not aware, however, that we have graduate students here that have reached their aggregate loan limit and are not able to borrow to complete their education.”

Among all the graduate students enrolled at the University, there more than 370 black graduate students, according to the University’s Division of Management Information.

According to the National Science Foundation, more than a third of black Ph.D. students are earning their degrees in education. The situation is particularly grim for black scholars in these programs because education is the preferred field for a large number of black students, making it difficult to receive loans.