Whether they pursue a bachelor’s or master’s degree, many architecture students are forced to take out loans to cover tuition. With design jobs rarely offering large salaries, architects can spend years, if not decades, paying off that debt. Image courtesy Wikipedia Tuition at Harvard's Graduate School of Design is $40,440 per year. Related Links: 2011 America’s Best Architecture Schools Now, that repayment period could get even longer. On July 1, the interest rate on federally subsidized student loans is set to double, from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent. The hiked rate will apply to new loans, not existing ones. The

@AIALobbyist’s Twitter page. On Sunday, the American Institute of Architects’ branch devoted to governmental issues and advocacy tweeted its congratulations to Newt Gingrich on winning the South Carolina GOP primary. The @AIALobbyist tweet read: “Congrats to #Newt on SC win . . . But more importantly, go #Giants!!!” This was the first time @AIALobbyist had congratulated a specific candidate. A lot of people tweet about political candidates. The issue here, however, is that the AIA’s Washington D.C.-based lobbying arm represents the professional interests of nearly 90,000 members. And while the @AIALobbyist Twitter feed is managed by one person—Andrew Goldberg, the