Val Meyers, an associate director in MSU’s Office of Financial Aid, said MSU already offers similar resources through its own website. Students can use an online repayment calculator through MSU, and they can access online and in-person counseling if they need it.

“We put the tools on the website in case people want to do it themselves,” Meyers said. “Or if they want to use a (repayment) calculator.”

In a press release, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan expressed the administration’s goal to make paying off loans less intimidating for recent college graduates, providing them support after they move on from their college’s counseling programs.

“With college graduation around the corner, thousands of students will soon start to repay their loans, and we want to help them select the repayment plan that makes sense for them,” Duncan said in the release. “Our goal is to make the entire challenge of college costs much less daunting, and these tools are additional steps in that direction.”

Meyers said the most important thing students should know about student loans is to employ moderation and not borrow too much, if at all possible.

“The thing about borrowing is to balance what you really need with what you can pay back,” she said. “The rule of thumb is you don’t borrow more for undergrad than your first-year expected salary. Of course, you can’t always do that.”

Mechanical engineering senior Megan Blaszak said she’s trying not to worry about her loans, even with graduation approaching.

“I do (think about it), but I also know there’s nothing I can really do about it,” Blaszak said.
“A college education is pretty much a necessity.”

She doesn’t know how much she’s borrowed, and she said she doesn’t really want to, but the new Department of Education features and MSU’s own resources are good to know about, even if she’s not ready to use them yet.

“I feel like that would be helpful,” Blaszak said. “But I’ll see how it all adds up.”

Spanish and physiology sophomore Jemma Flood said she plans to go to medical school and knows she needs to be thinking about the cost of her education.

“I’m not worried,” she said. “But I’m financially responsible for my education, so I’m always thinking and trying to minimize my costs.”

Flood said she wasn’t going to start worrying about her loans until she gets close to graduation, and the cost of medical school isn’t going to scare her off.

“It’s what I want to do,” she said. “I’ll make it work.”