With the federal government slashing interest rates by nearly 3.5 percent, taking out loans may look more appealing to students.

And why shouldn't it?

Interest rates for student loans are lower than they have been in years. Loans don't have to be repaid until after graduation, so a student can get a loan, avoid paying his or her tuition while they're in college, and not have to worry about shelling out all that money at the beginning of each semester.

But John Nametz, director of student financial aid, said the situation can sometimes be more complicated than that.

"Stay away from loans. If it's hurting your academic career, take out only what you need, regardless of the rate," he said.

Nametz said he would never advise anyone to take out a student loan unless they could not afford to pay for an education while in school.

Let's say Jane, a UA student, decides to take out a $5,000 loan to help pay for tuition while she's in school.

If Jane's loan has a 4.8% interest rate and she pays it back over 10 years after she gets out of school, she would pay $1,300 in interest alone. She would have paid $6,300 total in loans for her education.

In fact, according to the Financial Aid Office, in 2000-2001, 11,701 UA students received money in loans, resulting in $98,056,727 worth of loans being pumped into students' pockets. That number is nearly $20 million less than students received through scholarships, waivers and grants combined.

It's easy to get in over your head with student loans, Nametz said. Students are not required to repay loans while in college. Rather, the student begins making payments six months after graduation.

Depending on how many loans a student has taken out in the course of his or her education, the new graduate could owe the bank tens of thousands of dollars, on top of thousands more in interest payments, he said.

If graduates can't cover the cost of their loan payments, Nametz suggests that students talk to their lenders about forbearance.

If the person with the loan can get the bank to forbear the loan, a payment can be negotiated.

Depending on what the bank agrees to, the person could get the monthly payments cut in half or even halted for a period of time.

Of course, the loan would still have to be paid back, but this would buy time.

The loans can also be consolidated.

However, Nametz warns that a student should only consolidate his or her loans after a lot of careful consideration and research. He said that consolidating a loan can interfere with some of the privileges you have in the loan contract.

Nametz urges all students to check with their lenders and research the terms of their loans before taking such a big step.

For questions about student loans, Nametz encourages students to talk to their lender.

For general questions about student financial aid, or for more advice on your loans, you can set up an appointment to see one of the financial aid counselors in the administration building.