Graduate Student Loans without Cosigner – Rates and Resources
Graduate Student Loans
The financial assistance offered for those students who are pursuing their graduation degree is referred to as Graduate Student loans.
In common, there is an array of loans at low rate of interest made available for graduate students.
Graduate students loans and Undergraduate student loans are one and the same but differ with higher annual loan amount limitation in case of the graduate student loans.
Graduate students can avail one of the options mentioned below for obtaining financial aid
- Grad Stafford loans
- Grad Private Loans
- Grad PLUS loans
Among these options, Grad Stafford loans are always recommended by the financial experts as they are offered at lesser rate of fixed interest.
Both for Grad Stafford loans and Grad Private Loans co-signer is not required. But, for Grad Private Loans students have to provide the details regarding their credit worthiness and hence co-signer is optional.
Graduate Stafford loans
For Graduates, the best and foremost option available for getting financial assistance is Graduate Stafford loan which is a federally guaranteed loan.
There has been approximately a 35% increase in the cost of education during the past decade and this has had a significant impact in the requirement of graduate financial aid among students.
To fulfill the need, the U.S Department of Education has offered Graduate Stafford loans under two types.
- Subsidized Graduate Stafford loans
- Unsubsidized Graduate Stafford loans
Eligible students can borrow up to the maximum limit of $20,500 out of which $8,500 may be borrowed as subsidized loans.
No cosigner is required for getting this loan as the credit history information of the students is not collected.
Both for subsidized and unsubsidized graduate Stafford loans, the fixed rate of interest chargeable are 6.8%.
Graduate PLUS loans
Graduate PLUS loans are sanctioned by the U.S Department of Education for graduate students with low rate of fixed interest which is non-credit based student loan. Hence, students can obtain the loan facility without a co-signer.
Students can borrow the total cost of the graduate education which includes tuition fees, accommodations, books and supplies, lab expenses, travelling cost, minus amount raised through other sources of financial aid. The key facts of Graduate PLUS loans are mentioned below.
- Fixed rate of interest of 7.9%
- Allow deferment of loan while enrolled in School
- Credit history information is not required
- Tax deductable for the interest amount paid by the borrower
