Graduate Plus Loans Overview
If you are a graduate student who needs to find more money to pay expenses while you pursue your graduate degree, the Graduate Plus Loan may be just the help you need. This loan is a low interest loan and can be used to pay for the ongoing expenses of graduate school. The Graduate Plus Loan is meant to cover the broad costs of graduate school. These include books, tuition, and supplies of course, but also room and board, travel, and lab expanses. You can borrow up to this amount minus the amount of other financial assistance.
Your eligibility will be determined by your credit rating and your credit history. You may be eligible for a GradPlus Loan if you have a bad credit score as long as you don’t have a bad credit history. If you have been late on a debt, the time overdue cannot be more than 90 days. You must have no bankruptcies and no defaults on any Title IV debt.
Interest is fixed 8.5 % on the Graduate Plus Loan (also called the GradPlus Loan). No collateral will be required for this loan. As long as you are in school, your GradPlus Loan can be deferred which means you do not have to begin repayment of the loan.
In order to apply the FAFSA or Free Financial Aid Application must be filled out and submitted. You will receive a Student Air Report or SAR 3-4 weeks after the application is filed. It is important to file this early, just as you did while an undergraduate. Your school decides what your maximum eligibility will be. Most schools will strongly encourage you to borrow the maximum amount of Stafford Loans before you apply for a GradPlus Loan.
You must be a United States citizen or national, a permanent resident, or an eligible non-citizen. A permanent resident must have an I-151, I-551, or I-551C (Alien Registration Receipt Card). An eligible non-citizen must have an Arrival-Departure Record (I-94) from the INS which with one of these designations: refuge, asylum granted, indefinite parole and/or humanitarian parole, Cuban-Haitian Entrant – Status Pending, or conditional entrant.
There are some clear advantages to a GradPlus Loan over a private loan.
The loan fees on a GradPlus loan are 4% ; the fees on private student loans can be as high as 11%.
Some loans can be consolidated with federal education loans like the Stafford and Perkins loans. The GradPlus can be consolidated with these loans; you will have only one payment to worry about after graduation. Private loans cannot be consolidated with federal education loans.
Consolidating loans can lower your monthly payment by as much as 50%.
As you can see there are clear financial obligations that will have to be met after you graduate. Some fields of study require advanced degrees in order go attain the level of professional. These include some areas of medical training, law school, and counseling. Make sure before you chart your course to graduate school that you will have the financial resources to stay the course.
