Financial Aid Terms: Definition of “Full-Time” in Graduate School

A number of loan contracts and details differ based on the enrollment status of the student. Unfortunately, each college and educational institution may define the terms of enrollment differently. In most cases, enrollment must be at least half-time to qualify for financial aid at all.
When looking at graduate schools, you may be wondering how many credit hours are needed to be considered a full-time student, versus a half-time student. Here are some guidelines based on information gathered from a few types of schools:
Semester-based school with mostly 3 credit hour courses: Most institutions are using 9 credit hours as full-time and 6 credit hours for half-time.
Semester-based school with mostly 4 credit hour courses: Institutions use 8 credits as full-time with 4 credit hours for half-time.
Quarter schools: These institutions indicated using 6 credits for full-time with anywhere from 3-5 credit hours as half-time.
View the original article here

Why Pick a Graduate PLUS Loan?

As a graduate student, the pressure is higher than ever and of course, your classes are likely more expensive than your undergraduate career. The majority of loan products available to you are graduate Stafford loans, graduate PLUS loans and private student loans.
Getting back to the primary question, why pick a graduate PLUS loan?
There are some differing schools of thought on this, but I’ll break down the benefits and differences so you can decide which makes more sense for your financial information.
Grad PLUS = 7.9% fixedPrivate = variable, based on the Prime or LIBOR + X%; can be very low with good credit or a creditworthy cosignerGrad PLUS = several repayment options including: Standard, Graduated, Income Based Repayment, Income Contingent Repayment and Extended RepaymentPrivate = Generally 1 or 2 standard repayment plans; often 15 yearsGrad PLUS = interest rebate for one year’s worth if you make every payment on time during the first year; 0.25% APR reduction for auto-debit paymentsPrivate = a variety of different options depending on the lender such as: APR reductions, graduation rewards, co-signer release and more
To learn more about the differences between graduate PLUS loans and private student loans, check out GradLoans.com’s “Comparing Graduate PLUS and Graduate Private Loans” page.
View the original article here

Understand Your Graduate Loan Options

The Wall Street Journal had a great article yesterday explaining some of the problems that graduate business schools have been facing in regards to decreased applicant and attendance volume over the past few semesters.
The author, Diana Middleton, writes:

Many full-time programs have seen a drop in applications international students, partly due to increased competition from schools abroad and because of increased difficulty securing visas and student loans.

It’s no secret that student loans are more difficult to obtain for graduate students in the past few years due to the credit crunch and slow economic recovery. However, there are more lenders and programs than ever to assist post-undergraduates with their advanced degree programs.
Between the graduate Stafford loans and GradPLUS loan offerings, there is a substantial base of federal loans available to students attending accredited, Title IV-certified academic institutions. The interest rates on both loans are fixed (6.8% APR and 7.9% APR, respectively) and allow the safety of stable, unchanging payments.
Although the federal loans have fixed interest rates, private loans have the potential to much lower. At this moment in time, I have seen APRs start as low as 2.8% (August 2010). In addition, private student loans have many benefits and incentives that are not available to federal borrowers such as co-signer release and graduation rewards.
If you want to do your research find out what is available, take some time and compare student loans.
View the original article here