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Usually a month before the tuition billing due date. If the student is starting in the fall, July is a common month to apply.
2. How long does it take?
Usually a few weeks from start to finish. You can usually get initial quotes pretty quickly (within a few days) and decide what to do from there.
3. Where does the money go?
The lender sends the loan to the school. If you are taking out funds to cover living expenses (like an apartment), the school will send anything beyond their costs to the student.
4. What do most grad students do in terms of loans?
Most decide whether they need the protections of federal loans and if they can get a low enough rate on the private market. If the expectation upon graduation is a high paying role; and the student's credit score is good enough (650+) to get a decent rate, then they'll usually opt for private loans (like the ones Juno offers). If the expectation is a low income, or one that would qualify for PSLF, and/or the rates are too high, then students go with federal.
5. What kind of loan do they take out?
The most common are fixed interest 10 year loans. Many don't want to pay anything while in school (deferred) but the smarter strategy is often to pay a little while in school to get a lower interest rate. If you pay $25 every month for example it can result in significant savings, especially when you use the autopay discount.
6. Can I pay off the loan early?
Yes. There are no penalties or fees associated with this.
7. Are there any other fees?
No.
8. How much can I take out?
Up to the school's stated cost of attendance minus any financial aid received.
What is a student loan?
A student loan is when you or your guardian borrows money in order to pay for college. You can take out student loans for a number of reasons, and apply them to many different degree programs.
When a student loan is taken out, it’s usually only for one year of attendance. Most federal loans are disbursed per semester within an academic year. If you're borrowing for the academic year 2021-2022, you would get one installment at the beginning of fall semester 2021, and then another installment at the beginning of spring semester 2022.
You don’t need to stick with the same student loan provider for 4 years. You can borrow only federal loans one year, and then borrow from Sallie Mae, for example, the next year.
Federal Loans: For grad students, professional students, and parents of dependent undergrads. These are loans offered by the federal government.
Direct Subsidized Loan (aka Stafford Loans): For eligible undergraduates who demonstrate financial need. Usually the cheapest option available for undergraduate students. The interest you owe doesn’t begin accruing until 6 months after graduation, which is also how long you have before you need to start paying back the loan (known as the grace period).
Direct Unsubsidized Loan (aka Stafford Loans): For eligible undergraduates and graduate students but eligibility is not based on financial need. You also have a 6 month grace period but interest begins accruing immediately after these loans are disbursed.
Direct PLUS Loan: For grad students, professional students, and parents of dependent undergrads. Eligibility is not based on financial need, but a credit check is required. Interest rates may be higher on these loans, but you are able to borrow the entire cost of attendance.
Private Loans: For grad students, professional students, and parents of dependent undergrads. These are loans offered by private lenders, like Sallie Mae. They usually have credit requirements set by lenders and may require a cosigner. Can be less expensive than PLUS loans for those with good credit.
Here’s a side-by-side comparison: Here some basic pros and cons between the two:
Interest Rate: An interest rate is best understood as the cost of borrowing a certain amount of money. When you take out a student loan or any loan, it will come with this cost. People normally look to get loans that have the lowest interest rates (keeping in mind any associated fees that add to the total cost).
Some loans don’t begin charging interest until a certain time after you graduate, some start charging interest immediately. Interest is expressed as a percentage of the total loan amount. If you took out a $5,000 loan, and your interest was 10% fixed a year, that would mean that every year, $500 would be added to your original loan of $5,000 (assuming you only paid off the interest each year).
While seemingly insignificant, the difference between a 10% and 5% fixed interest rate in the example above could mean more than $250 in savings each year.
Fixed-Rate: As the example above shows, a fixed rate will stay the same throughout the entire life of your loan.
Variable Rate: A variable rate is when an interest rate fluctuates through the repayment process. These interest rates rise and fall with something called LIBOR, which “serves as a globally accepted key benchmark interest rate that indicates borrowing costs between banks.”
A quick note: Federal loans only offer fixed rates while private lenders usually offer both. Variable rates for private loans are usually lower than fixed rates, but they can go up and down over time.
A quick note: As you may have heard, student loan interest rates are at historic lows, and there is a payment holiday in effect for federally held student loans. Federal loans will have 0% interest accruing and no payment collections until September 30th, 2021. While this holiday doesn’t apply to private loans, private lenders are offering lower interest rates as well.
Rate Discount: Many lenders offer specific discounts to stated rates.
Auto-pay discounts: typically a 0.25% rate reduction offered if you connect your bank account to your loan servicer
Relationship discounts: Some banks will offer up to a 0.5% rate discount if you open a bank account in addition to taking out a loan
Member discounts: Juno negotiates exclusive rate discounts. This year, as a Juno member, you will get lower rates on your private loans than if you went directly to the lender yourself
Fees: Applying for loans can come with fees. Here are a few common ones you may run into.
Origination Fee: A fee charged by a lender when you first take out a loan. The federal government is charging a 4.228% origination fee for Grad PLUS loans this year. Juno’s partner has no origination fee. That might mean the difference between several thousand dollars depending on the amount you borrow.
Prepayment Penalty: A fee if you pay back your loan ahead of the predetermined schedule. When you graduate, you become a lower credit risk and may be able to refinance your loans at a lower cost. Make sure your loan has no prepayment penalty, so you can refinance with ease. Very few lenders use this. Avoid it whenever possible.
Application Fee: There are pretty rare. Federal loan applications don’t have application fees, and most private lenders don’t either. If you come across a private lender with an application fee, it’s a red flag, so look closely at your loan terms.
The Basics of Paying for School:
Your COA (Cost of Attendance) is estimated by universities using these factors:
Tuition + Mandatory fees for course materials
Room & Board
Health Insurance
Personal Expenses
Schools include multiple estimates for singles, couples, and families. If you aren’t living on campus, already have health insurance, or have scholarships, you may not pay the full COA, as you won’t incur the full cost of the items listed. Keep this in mind when researching schools, and when making other decisions, like if you should move on-campus, get an apartment, or stay at home.
It’s likely you’re going to be applying for financial aid in order to save money on the tuition portion of the COA. There are many different kinds of financial aid, and categories vary between universities. You will typically hear about merit-based aid as soon as you’re admitted. Most schools will have you apply for need-based financial aid after you’ve been admitted and accepted their offer. It’s within merit-based aid that most people are awarded things like scholarships or gift-aid by the school. Need-based aid will be based on separate applications, like FAFSA, or the university’s own need-based financial aid form. It typically takes 3-4 weeks to hear back about need-based aid.
Once you hear back from your university’s aid office, you’ll be presented with an award letter. Think of your financial aid award letter as a first draft as opposed to a finished product. If you really want to go somewhere and the cost after scholarships and aid is too high, try asking for more. Schools won’t rescind your acceptance just because you ask politely for more financial help, so try! Check out our template for negotiating more financial aid here.
A few tips when asking for more aid:
Be selective about asking. Make sure you really want to go to that program.
It usually helps if you’ve gotten into more than one school and can credibly tell one school that you’d choose it if you had more aid.
You’ve already been accepted. They won’t change their minds because you ask for some help politely. So make sure to ask.
Now that that’s out of the way, we can talk about the next step, which is taking out loans to cover what scholarships, merit-aid, and need-based aid won’t cover.
Federal direct unsubsidized student loans are offered by the federal government and can be a good option for borrowing money for graduate school for those with lower credit scores. You can borrow up to $20,500 per year in Direct Unsubsidized Loans. For Direct Unsubsidized Loans disbursed on or after July 1, 2021, and before July 1, 2022, the fixed interest rate is 5.284%.
Then there are federal direct PLUS loans. Cap is the cost of attendance, so people can use this after the Direct option. For 2020 the interest rate is 6.284% with a fee of 4.228%. An alternative to this option is private student loans which can be less costly if you have a 670+ credit score.
Both private loans and PLUS loans cap their borrowing amount at the COA of a given program or school. Usually, graduate students will take out direct loans to the federal cap and then turn to either private or PLUS loans to supplement whatever remaining costs they have left. These remaining costs could be tuition, but they could also be moving, books, housing, or other personal expenses.
Both private loans vary in interest rates from person to person and offer both fixed and variable rates. There are no fees either, but with the potential, lower costs come some disadvantages. You’ll want to make sure you’re aware of the federal loan benefits you’re giving up like loan forgiveness and income-based repayment plans. You might want to look into loan forgiveness for federal loans before making any decisions.
If you took out federal loans during your undergraduate degree, those loans may qualify for a Graduate Fellowship Deferment or In-School Deferment upon you entering a graduate program. The federal government pauses your payments until 6 months after you graduate from your graduate program. The deferment is usually put in place automatically, but you can also request a deferment if you are enrolled in a graduate program. Keeping this in mind is important, as these loan payments will kick in addition to loan payments from your graduate loans.
Law School, Medical School
We have a specific guide for financing a law degree, which you can check out here. In general, the situation is somewhat similar for both higher education tracks to getting a graduate degree. On the federal loan level, law and medical students should be eligible for the same $20,500 per year in Direct Unsubsidized Loans. After that, the rest of the COA has to be made up of a mix of Direct Plus Loans, Private Loans, scholarships, or savings.
Avoiding loans for either degree is pretty difficult, so choosing the right financing options is important. When it comes to borrowing money for law or medical school, historically most students have turned to federal loans to finance their education. Then, after graduating, many doctors and lawyers choose to refinance to get a lower rate or better terms (see below for a full explainer). At the same time, a large number of doctors and lawyers choose to keep their federal loans because of the benefits they provide. Each option has unique pros and cons and what is best for you varies by your situation.
Although federal loans may have higher interest rates than private loans, they do have some protections like Income-Driven Repayment Plans and Public Service Loan Forgiveness. The PSLF program specifically has an income eligibility cap, meaning if you make over a certain amount, you won’t be able to use the program. This usually disqualifies many law and medical graduates, since they enter high-salary jobs after graduation. This high income can help you pay off large debt faster. If this is the bucket you think you’ll fall into, you likely won’t benefit from the federal protections, you may end up overpaying for benefits that you do not get to take advantage of, as federal loans may have a higher interest rate than private ones. Private loans may make more sense for you.
If you are considering a career in public service, like being a public defender or a doctor at a VA hospital, carefully consider if federal programs would influence your decision in taking out and holding on to your federal loans, instead of refinancing them for better terms after graduation. IDR plans may help offset the lower salary of a public sector job. The PSLF program may help you get portions of your debt canceled after graduation and entering the public workforce, alleviating your debt burden. Keep in mind that there is no guarantee that these plans will always be around, or they may change their eligibility requirements.
When it comes to private loans, the interest rate offered to each person varies. Every private lender has its own unique underwriting process and standards for student loan applicants; these eligibility requirements help lenders decide whether to give an applicant a loan and at what interest rate. As part of the loan application process, lenders will require a credit check to evaluate your ability to repay and how risky you are. If you have a good credit score (650+) you will likely qualify for a loan, and the higher your score is the better rate you will be offered. Adding a co-signer can also lower your rate.
Basically, to understand if federal loan protections are worth it, you need to know how much you are paying for them. Comparing federal loan options to private loan options is the best way to do that.
We highly recommend getting organized early. Here’s a graduate student checklist to help get you started:
Refinancing: The Low Down
What do you do after graduating? Well, you start having to pay back your loans. However, there is a way to save money through this process too, and that's refinancing. Refinancing basically means to finance (something) again, typically by taking out a new loan at a lower interest rate. The new, cheaper loan, pays off the old loan, and you save on the overall loan cost while likely lowering your monthly payment.
When you first take out a loan, the interest rate is set by a variety of factors including your ‘riskiness’ – the likelihood you’ll pay it back. Once you have a steady income, your ‘risk’ is reduced and lenders are more willing to give you a better deal. Refinancing usually works best for graduates who have Unsubsidized Direct Loans, Graduate PLUS loans, and/or private loans. Refinancing federal loans may forfeit certain perks such as public service forgiveness and economic hardship programs.
It’s important to keep in mind what your career plans are and how those may affect your federal loans. If you are going into public service, you may want to keep your federal loans so that you may qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness. As we have mentioned already, there is also a federal student loan holiday in effect for federally-held student loans. Federal loans will have 0% interest accruing and no payment collections until September 30th, 2021. Refinancing these loans may not be in your best interest. If you have private loans, taking advantage of lower interest rates is a great way to save money on the loans you’re already paying for. If and when the federal loan holiday expires and you figure out your PSLF eligibility, there can be some serious perks to refinancing a federal loan into a private loan if your federal loan has a high interest rate.
Written By
Juno Team
Juno came into existence to help students save money on student loans and other financial products through group buying power by negotiating with lenders. The Juno Team has worked with 90,000+ students and families to help them save money.
