Many Hispanics Hesitant To Borrow Money For College — Educators Try To Convince Hispanics That College Loans Are A Good Investment

AUSTIN As the financial aid director for the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), Raul Lerma is devoted to bridging the gap between Hispanics and other groups to provide more access to higher education.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Hispanics nationwide are three times less likely to have a bachelor’s degree. Only 9.5 percent of Hispanics ages 25-29 have a bachelor’s degree or higher as opposed to 28.4 percent of all people in the same age group nationwide.

Lerma and other experts attribute the disparity to a lack of awareness of financial aid opportunities in the Hispanic community, and an unwillingness to borrow money to pay for college.

“Many Hispanic students come from families where college has never been an option because, among other things, it is too expensive,” he says. “They don’t realize that financial aid including scholarships, grants, and loans are available to help them pay for a college education.”

National surveys show that Hispanics are less likely to borrow than other ethnic groups. At UTEP, where four-fifths of the enrollment is Hispanic, students graduate with the lowest average indebtedness among public research institutions nationwide.

Reasons behind the loan phobia include not only a lack of knowledge about financial aid, but also a fear of debt and mistrust of lenders. “Many students come from families that believe that debt of any kind is bad,” says Lerma.

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