Finance Graduate Education

About 40 percent of all graduate students in 2019–20 borrowed federal loans, while only about 5 percent borrowed private loans. Borrowing patterns also differed across racial and ethnic groups. Overall, the majority of Black or African American (64.5 percent) and Hispanic or Latino (55.9 percent) graduate students borrowed some type of loan in 2019–20, while fewer than half of all other racial and ethnic groups borrowed funds. Particularly, Black or African American students had the highest borrowing rate among all master’s and research doctoral students (69.2 percent and 51.6 percent, respectively), and Hispanic or Latino students had the highest borrowing rate among all professional and other doctoral students (78.2 percent).