What sort of music do you listen to? high risk loans lenders Last summer, debate about student loans reached a fever pitch thanks to a scheduled increase in the interest rate for new subsidized Stafford loans made to undergraduates. As I said at the time, no one wanted to see interest rates double – particularly at a time when one out of every two college graduates is struggling to find a full time job. But we need to move away from a system that allows Washington politicians to use student loan interest rates as bargaining chips, creating uncertainty and confusion for borrowers.