To coincide with President Bush's February education proposal, MSU's freshman financial aid loan limit could increase by $375.
But Richard Shipman, director of MSU's Office of Financial Aid, said the limit should be increased for sophomores, juniors and seniors, too - and it should be larger.
"We would be happy to see the freshman limit increase, but we really think it's too little with the kind of difference we'd need," he said. "There's no reason that our freshmen and sophomores should be getting less than juniors."
The increase would boost the freshman aid limit from $2,625 to $3,000 per student, and although he'd be grateful for the increase, Shipman said it's "just so out of line with what current college costs are that it's really pretty ridiculous. The limits are really artificially low for everyone."
Bush's proposal doesn't match the cost of college, Shipman said, nor does it aid in the strain on students.
"If that's all you have, then the choice is working too many hours or using credit cards or something," he said. "We'd much rather have you using a federal student loan. To us, it's all kind of foolishness."
Physics sophomore John Bedtelyon said he wishes he didn't have to worry about where his college financial aid came from.
"I pay for my own school right now, and I'm always willing to take out loans because I know I will be able to pay them back later," he said. "Getting more federal aid would allow me to focus more on school rather than working and saving up money to pay off the balance of my school fees at the end of each semester."
But some students worry that the added funding would put more pressure on the federal budget.
"While I like the idea, I think we need to get the budget back on track before we can look at doing programs like this one," Aleks Bomis, a political science and pre-law sophomore, said.
Bush also proposed to set aside $33 million to enhance the Federal Pell Grant program, which would increase the limits from $4,050 to $5,050, Shipman said.
"That's a big deal," he said. "I'd like to think that all of our freshmen would qualify. Every additional dollar helps."
More than 1,300 MSU freshmen received $3.4 million in Pell Grant money for the 2003-04 academic year.
Staff writer Jaclyn Roeschke contributed to this report.
