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Kaitlin Mulhere is an editor at Money.com, where she focuses on student debt. Her work guides readers from taking out their first student loan to navigating different repayment options.
Julia Glum joined Money in 2018 and specializes in covering financial trends that affect everyday Americans' wallets. She also writes Dollar Scholar, a weekly newsletter that teaches young adults how to navigate the messy world of money.
Interest rates on federal student loans are set to jump by one percentage point this summer.
Undergraduate loans will soon carry a rate of 6.53% for the 2024-2025 school year, up from 5.50% this school year. Graduate direct loans will have a rate of 8.08%, up from 7.05%. And PLUS loans for grad students and parents of undergraduates will rise to 9.08%, up from 8.05% this year.
The new rates, set based on the results of a Treasury auction on Wednesday, take effect on July 1.
This will mark the fourth straight year that interest rates on federal loans for higher education have increased, and the new rates will be the highest that students have paid in more than a decade.