SLA Flash Survey Confirms Difficulty of Finding Private Loans For International Students

The basic takeaway from this survey is that private loans for international students without a co-signer are incredibly difficult to find (I wish I had better news to report).  Here is a link to the survey results from the 158 responses:  Download International_Students_Private_Loans_FINAL

Here is a summary of the key findings:

• Only 6% of survey respondents have found private student lenders for international students WITHOUT a U.S. co-signer.  Almost all of these examples have been chronicled on this blog already and involve graduate institutions: 
  
  • Harvard University graduate schools partnered with Chase
  • MIT Sloan School of Management program partnered with MIT Federal Credit Union
  • Wharton MBA program partnered with Digital Federal Credit Union
  • Deutsche Bank will be funding the GMAC proposal which would cover international students at 40 MBA programs worldwide
    

• Respondents indicated that they have had greater success finding private student lenders for international students WITH a U.S. co-signer, with 62% of respondents finding such lenders

• Finally, in terms of institutional loan programs to serve international students:
  • 14% of respondents indicated that they currently have such a program
  • 8% are considering implementing a program in 2009-10
  • 2% have a program but may curtail it in 2009-10
  • 2% have decided to implement a new program in 2009-10

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Comments

[Collegecounselor]

By any chance, have you done any research on possible student loans for undocumented students, or might you have any resources on those? I am a high school counselor and this is a question that comes up every year with undocumented students who have attended high school in the U.S. but are now looking for ways to finance their college educations. Thank you.