EMU expands loan repayment assistance program to include 16 additional majors

Eastern Michigan University (EMU) has seen success in a pilot loan repayment assistance program for education students, so the university is now rolling that same protection out to 16 additional academic areas of study. The EMU Advantage Loan Repayment Assistance Program’s (LRAP) fall 2025 cohort includes 121 students.

Under the LRAP, if a student’s income after graduation is less than $50,000, EMU will help repay their federal, parent PLUS, and private alternative student loans. EMU Vice President of Enrollment Management Katie Condon-Martin notes that, under these types of programs, the loans are not “forgiven.” Graduates will continue to pay their student loans but will be reimbursed through a fund EMU has established, run by a private third-party company. Students may be reimbursed partially or in full depending on their outstanding loan balance and their income.

That’s important because it allows students to take advantage of future loan forgiveness programs they may need down the road like the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program for college grads who end up working for the government or a nonprofit.

Condon-Martin says it made sense to start with education students since EMU is known as a teachers’ college. She says EMU’s research found that teachers start out with annual salaries around $42,000 on average across Washtenaw County and other adjacent counties.

“We’re trying to stabilize Eastern’s enrollment, so we thought this program would work for a select number of majors,” she says. 

To determine which areas of study to add to the program, EMU used three data points: which majors students were interested in, which majors had capacity to grow enrollment, and which careers had a relatively low starting pay rate.

“That means this kind of program doesn’t make sense if a student is pursuing a major where we know starting pay is usually $80,000,” Condon-Martin says.

She says the university used a concept called “yield” to determine that the LRAP was working for the initial pool of education students. Yield is the number of students offered admittance to the university who actually enroll there, as opposed to a similar program at another university. Yield went up about 10% after offering the program, Condon-Martin says.

“I would love to see 200 students enrolled each year. That would be aspirational for us,” Condon-Martin says. “It shows that we make an investment in our students. We care not only about what you’re doing here at the university but what you’re doing afterward.”

More information and the full list of eligible programs is available here. 

On the Ground Ypsilanti is an “embedded journalism” program covering the city and township of Ypsilanti. It is supported by Ann Arbor SPARK, the Center for Health and Research Transformation, Destination Ann Arbor, Eastern Michigan University, Engage @ EMU, Washtenaw Community College, Washtenaw County Parks and Recreation Commission, and Washtenaw ISD.