Feb. 20, 2015
Wealthy graduate students, not undergraduates, will reap a larger share of the loan-forgiveness benefits under this program because they can borrow a lot more. The government limits how much undergraduates can borrow to as little as $5,500 a year and cuts them off after $31,000 in total. Graduate students, on the other hand, can take out federal loans for the entire cost of their educations with no annual or lifetime limit. Loans to grad students are already the fastest-growing category of federal student borrowing, the Education Department reports, and of those who take out more than $20,500 per year, half are repaying through the income-based program.