NJ College Kids Slammed By Student Loan Rate Hike [AUDIO]

Interest rates on federally subsidized Stafford student loans have doubled, going from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent, after Congress failed to reach a deal to avoid the increase.

Unless a measure is passed to undo the damage, the average college student will pay an extra $2,600 from this point forward.

Students at Rutgers University were not exactly thrilled about the increase.

"Doubling interest on students is definitely very bad for us, you have a deferred payment, but even then, if the interest accrues, we will have lots of problems," said one student on the Rutgers, Piscataway campus.

"I think it's unfortunate," said another student. "It seems like a lot of students are just graduating with huge amounts of debt and not being able to pay that off. I think it is going to overall hurt our education system and our future."

"It's particularly difficult for the students of New Jersey given how New Jersey's support for higher education has steadily dropped over the last couple of decades," Another young man pointed out. "We're having a harder and harder time keeping up with what New Jersey workplace needs and making harder for good students to go to college is very sad."

"It's horrible to have interest rates go up, especially when the cost of higher education is already so high," said another student. "The fact that Congress hasn't done anything about forestalling this event is really atrocious at the end of the day."