student education loan

good afternoon and thank you for joining ourpresentation on how to get an international student loan. my name is jennifer frankeland i’m the director of financial services. i’m pleased to be joined by bryanna davisand victoria troupe who are both marketing coordinators here at international studentloan. we are excited that you’ve decided to join our conversation as we will be providingyou with a complete overview of the international student loan process. but before we get started,i want to take this time to let you know that we’ll be answering your questions at theend of this presentation. use the chat window on the right throughout this presentationto get your questions in so that we have time to answer them at the very end. you can alsojoin the conversation at #financialaidtalk

which you can see at the very bottom of thescreen or our handle e@intlstudentloans on twitter. after this presentation we’ll beadding additional resources on our facebook and google+ account so be sure to check itout. so with that, let’s get started. to giveyou a roadmap of today’s conversation, we’ll begin by talking more about what is a studentloan and how this should fit into your overall financial aid package. next, we’ll talkabout the requirements of a student loan before you even apply. then, we’ll discuss theentire student loan application process from start to finish. and finally, we’ll takeyour questions at the very end. before we dive into the details though, firstit’s important to know what a student loan

is. unlike scholarships, grants and fellowshipswhich award money without the obligation to pay the money back, a student loan is whenyou borrow money for a certain period of time, after which you pay the principle back plusa cost to borrow that money (which we refer to as interest). there are two types of studentloans. the first one is federal loans, you may have heard of stafford loans for example.unfortunately international students are not eligible for federal loans but the good newsis that they are eligible for private student loans.these private student loans are typically done through banks and can be issued at anytime throughout the year. so, for example, if you are starting the semester or even ifyou have an interruption of funds, let’s

say a family member no longer is able to financiallysupport you, this can help. you can borrow up to the total cost of your education minusany financial aid you’ve received (such as scholarships for example). before choosingyour loan, be sure to review and understand the terms and conditions. this can be verydifficult especially with a lot of jargon so we have a resource section on internationalstudent loan where you can review the different terms but the major ones are interest rate,which i mentioned, is the cost of borrowing the money. the lower your interest rate, thelower your cost. next is the repayment period which is the amount of time it takes to paythe money back. there is also the deferral period which is when you actually start makingthe payments – it could be right away or

it could be after your graduation. be sureto think about these and think about them wisely as both of these options - your repaymentof the deferral period - will influence your cost of borrowing. obviously, the longer ittakes to pay back the loan, the most costly it can be. the good news is that once youapply, you’ll get initial approval within two to six weeks.remember, international student loans are a great way to help cover your educationalfees. be sure to first maximize the money you don’t have to pay back, such as scholarships,fellowships, and other awards. then, you cover your costs with your own savings and helpfrom family members such as your parents or distant relatives. if there is still a gap,you can then apply to international student

loans to cover the rest.so, once you are ready to apply, it’s important to make sure you have all the needed checkmarksfor your application. i’m going to turn it over to bryanna davis to talk more aboutthe requirements of international student loans.bryanna davis: thank you jennifer. alright, so let’s takea look at a few of the requirements that you have to have met in order to apply for aninternational student loan. first is going to be a cosigner. now since most internationalstudents coming to the us don’t typically have an established line of credit, a cosigneris going to be needed and also required. this might seem like a hurdle, but it’s actuallya good thing for you because a cosigner is

essentially joining the loan application whichmeans that their credit will help you to be approved and get the best interest rate possible.now when you get the best interest rate possible, this means less money that you have to payback later on. so that’s good news for you. now there are a few things that cosignersdo need to meet whenever it comes to if they are eligible to become a cosigner. those arethat they must be a us citizen or permanent resident that has lived in the us for thepast two years and that they have good credit history. so they must have all three of thoseitems met. now keep in mind that the credit history criteria is going to vary by eachlender, so you will want to ensure you find a cosigner with as good of a credit historyas possible. now if you are a us citizen then

a cosigner is not required. so you don’thave to have a cosigner in order to apply. however, it’s typically a good idea to stilltry to find a cosigner that way, once again, because you will be approved for an internationalstudent loan and get the best interest rate possible. now something else that you’re going toneed in many cases is going to be a social security number. if you do not have a socialsecurity number and you are going through the online application for a loan, somethingthat you can do is give the lender a call and see if they have a paper application thatdoes not require the social security number. and this might be a way around having to havea social security number in order to apply

for an international student loan. so now that you know you need a cosigner,let’s take a look at who exactly is appropriate to become a cosigner because this is oftena hurdle for international students trying to get a loan is: they don’t have a cosignerbut they’re not sure who to ask to be one for them. a few good individuals to ask isfamily members and friends. individuals whom you do not want to ask include people at randombusinesses that you may have worked with in the past or people at your schools, such asinternational student advisors or professors, people that you don’t know well. typically,the rule of thumb is: if you wouldn’t lend them money a large sum of money then it wouldn’tbe a good idea to ask them to cosign for you.

so once you have found an appropriate cosigner,then it’s time to find a lender. first of all, it’s important to realize that notevery lender will work with every school and not every lender is going to work with internationalstudents. you will need to find a lender that’s willing to work with the school you plan onattending and also willing to lend to international students. instead of spending hours researchingpossible lenders on the internet, i’m going to hand it over to victoria troupe who willshare more about comparing lenders and how to find the best option for you. victoria troupe:thanks bryanna. so how do you actually apply for an international student loan? well, afteryou have found a cosigner and have been admitted

into the college of your choice in the us,that’s when you should be ready to apply for an international student loan. what wehave done at internationalstudentloan.com is put together the first student loan comparisontool. it shows what lenders are available for individual schools and allows you to applyfor the loan right on the website. it is a great tool to use and serves as a “one stopshop” to weigh all of your student loan options. it’s easy to use as you can seeon the screen and i’m actually going to walk you through it on the actual website. so here we are, this is www.internationalstudentloan.comand it shows you exactly what to do here in the green boxes. first of all you need tochoose ‘are you a us citizen or permanent

resident?’ if you are an international studentstudying in the us choose ‘no.’ the next question is: do you have a us cosigner? asbryanna mentioned earlier, you will need one in order to receive an international studentloan. so for this question you should be answering ‘yes.’ then you will choose the stateof school you’ve been accepted to. for example, we are going to choose florida and then youwill need to choose the name of your school. so for example, all of these are schools inflorida, so scroll down until you see the appropriate option. for our example we’regoing to use the university of florida and then it will ask you for an email addressso we will put one in for this example. then we are going to click on ‘find my studentloan’ right here with the green button.

simply click there and wait for the computerto load. this is going to show you all of the loan companies that are loaning to internationalstudents at your loan specifically. the lenders will be different depending on the schoolyou are attending and additional lenders are added constantly, so be sure to check backfrequently. now after you have used the tool to see whatlenders are available to you, see which one works best for you because you may have numerousoptions and simply click on the ‘apply now’ button in red. from there, the entire applicationis available online and you can borrow up to the full cost of your education minus anyother aid you have received, like scholarships. so that was the hard part and now you arereally started towards your international

student loan! so what happens now? you willreceive your initial email approval within 48 hours and weeks later, to let you knowif you are automatically approved. then you will be asked to complete some additionaldocumentation, sometimes being a lending disclosure which is required by law. once you are approvedfor the loan you will have to sign a self-certification form and a master promisary note – whichwill be sent from your lender directly. then your school will need to certify the loan,which is a step that you won’t be involved in. your lender will communicate with yourschool specifically to certify your loan and ensure funding is distributed correctly. anyadditional amount will be sent to you from the school. contact your school directly ifyou have any questions about the timing of

the disbursement, when you can expect yourmoney, etc. so that was a quick overview of our studentloan comparison tool and we hope you will use it as soon as possible. in conclusion,we want to let you know that a student loan can help you fund your education even if youare an international student. these loans are available are available as long as youhave a us cosigner and the best place to start is the website i just showed you: www.internationalstudentloan.com.now we are going to answer a few of the questions you have been submitting and please continueto submit them, as we will get through as many as we can. you can join the conversationon twitter with #finiancialaidtalk and incase we don’t get through all of the questionswe will post them on our social media accounts.

jenny would you like to take over?jennifer frankel: yes, absolutely. thank you victoria. we wantto again thank you for attending our discussion on how to get an international student loan.we will be holding our next webinar on march 6th on 8 steps to write a killer essay sobe sure to follow us on twitter, facebook and google+ to get more information on registration.also, if you have ideas of a webinar that you want to see let us know through thosedifferent social media outlets and we’ll be taking feedback as we craft our upcomingwebinars. we want to thank you all for submitting yourquestions and will get to as many as possible. if you do not see your question here, pleasecheck out our social pages as we’ll be listing

your questions and additional resources. again,if you have any questions on terminology, be sure to check out the resources sectionon international student loan. so, let’s get straight to your questions question: “i do not know anyone in the usand to get a loan i need a cosigner. is there or are there no alternatives?” answer: theway these private student loans work is that they are non-collateral loans. what that meansis that you are not putting up an actual asset like a car or house, so these lenders requirethat you have someone in the us that’s basically signing on to the application with you incase you cannot pay the money back. that person will instead. because of that, that persondoes need to be a us cosigner. so even if

you are from another country and you havesomeone at home that will cosign your loan, they do have to meet – as bryanna mentioned– three requirements: 1. they have to be a us citizen or a us greencard holder. 2. they have to have lived in the us for thepast two years. 3. they have to have good credit. question: “i have a us cosigner but theydo not have good credit. can i still apply?” answer: what happens when you apply for astudent loan is that you are going to put the cosigner information on the applicationand they are going to do a credit check. it’s always a good idea, if you are not completelysure, to apply for the student loan. what

the lender will do is review the conditionsand come back to you to let you know: 1. if you’ve been approved2. terms and conditions the cosigner is valuable because it reallydoes effect the interest rate on your student loan. the better credit your cosigner has,the more favorable your interest rate. so, if you are unhappy with the terms you got,you can always find another cosigner instead. question: “what about loans for us studentsstudying abroad?” answer: here at international student loan we offer two study abroad loans.the first is a loan for students going through a program in the us and getting credit fromthat us institution. as long as they are an approved school then you are eligible andas bryanna said, if you are using that same

tool on international student loan, you wouldselect ‘us citizen’ and be matched directly. the second kind of loan is foreign enrolledloan, meaning if you are a us citizen enrolling directly in a foreign school and if this isthe case, there are loans for you as well. so the best thing to do in any situation isto use that tool on www.internationalstudentloan.com because it takes all of your information andquickly matches you with appropriate loans. question: “do i ask for the student loanafter i have been accepted to the university?” answer: we are asked this a lot, and the answeris yes. you do have to be accepted by the university in order to apply for a studentloan and the reason for that is because student loans do have to be approved by your school.so it’s important to first choose the university

and be accepted before applying for studentloans. sometimes you may be able to apply for the loans and you can use those fundsto prove proof of financial solvency, which states you have enough funds to cover thecost of tuition. be sure to check with the financial aid office because this will varyby institution. question: “how do i get a cosigner?” answer:getting a us cosigner is oftentimes difficult for international students, especially ifthey don’t have ties to the us. cosigners can be family members, friends, basicallyanyone who is willing to sign the application, but keep in mind it’s a big undertakingfor your cosigner because they’re essentially putting their credit on the line so that youcan get a student loan. when you approach

them, let them know that you understand therisks involved and it’s unfortunate that cosigners in your home country will not workfor this kind of loan as the rules require a us cosigner. question: “what are the criteria to be acosigner?” answer: 1. you must be a us citizen or us resident2. they must have been in the united states for the past two years3. they must have good credit question: “how can i get a grant in preparationfor a master’s degree?” answer: grants are different than loans. there are many differentsources of financial aid: grants, scholarships, and a number of different awards you can get– which are typically funds you don’t

have to pay back and because of that you receivethe money and can put it towards your education. there are many different resources out there,one of with being www.iefa.org and there you can find a list of scholarships and fellowships.of course it’s always a good idea to contact your university directly for different typesof grants. international student loans can also help if you have already been acceptedto a school you can borrow up to the total cost of your education. question: “is there any cap to the amounta student can be offered for an international student loan?” answer: yes, the way thatinternational student loans work is you can borrow up to the cost of your total educationminus any other awards you have received.

for example, if you received a scholarship,it would be your financial aid minus the amount of your scholarship award. all of this isdetermined by your institution, so if you aren’t sure of the cap amount, we suggesttalking to the financial aid office or the international student advisor to find thetotal cost of education. lenders want to ensure you are only borrowing as much as you needand that’s another reason why lenders and schools work so closely together. question: “from where are these loans coming?is it from the us government?” answer: this is a great question and the loans are comingfrom us banks, not the government. as i mentioned earlier with the different types of studentloans, there are federal loans – which are

though the government and there are privatestudent loans- which are done through banks. federal aid is not typically given to internationalstudents, so these are private banks who are working with international students and theiruniversities to provide these funds. question: “what if i don’t have any aidor scholarships?” answer: that’s fine if you don’t have any aid or scholarshipsbecause there are not required. if you have any savings or family income that you aregoing to put towards your education, ensure you consider that before you calculate thetotal costs you want to borrow for your loans. remember how much you borrow and the timeframefrom which you borrow will all affect interest rates so you want to think of internationalstudent loans as covering the gaps to ensure

you’re able to afford your education. question: “could you repeat the websiteabout grants?” answer: www.iefa.org we actually had a webinar last month where we discussedscholarships. if you would like to hear more on the subject, ensure you connect with uson twitter and facebook or google+ so we can ensure all of your questions are answered. question: “how long does it typically taketo pay back a loan?” answer: this will all depend on the loan that you choose. thereare a number of different lenders that you may be eligible for and your repayment canstart right away or it could start right after school and it can go for as long as the termof agreement is. obviously if you have a longer

period of time in which you can repay theloans, your interest rates will be higher. if you want the lowest interest rate it’salways best to repay as soon as possible but obviously you need to look at your pocketbook.before accepting the loan ensure you know when payments will be due, the interest ratesand exactly when you will be required to start paying and ensure you will have the fundingto do so. again, we want to thank you for attendingour presentation on how to get an international student loan and hope you found it helpful.we will continue this conversation on twitter so be sure to find us @internationalstudentloansand will continue answering your questions throughout the day. if you aren’t on twittercheck us out on facebook or google+ to keep

in touch and look out for our next webinar.thank you for coming and we all hope you have a wonderful afternoon.