8 Excellent Graduate Student Loans to Fund Your Advanced Degree in 2021
Note that the situation for student loans has changed due to the impact of the coronavirus outbreak and relief efforts from the government, student loan lenders and others. Check out our Student Loan Hero Coronavirus Information Center for additional news and details.
Whether you’re interested in getting an advanced degree to earn more money or alter your career trajectory, chances are your investment in grad school could pay off.
But to get the best return on that investment, you’ll want to limit your graduate student loans and borrowing costs. This means choosing the best graduate student loan for you — likely something low-cost and with the right features and terms to meet your needs.
To get started, check out our list of some solid student loans for graduate school available today, as well as tips on deciding which loan is best for you:
8 top private graduate student loans
The process of finding the best graduate student loans — at least in terms of private loans — starts with familiarizing yourself with the lenders that offer them. From there, you can begin comparing graduate student loans based on rates, fees and other terms that are important to you.
Kick off your search with the eight lenders below. After vetting many products, we think these are the student loans for graduate school that stand out.
| 1. Citizens Bank | 3.99% – 11.80% | Multi-year loan approval |
| 2. College Ave | 3.34% – 12.99% | Slick prequalification process |
| 3. Sallie Mae | 4.25% – 12.59% | Industry-best 12-month cosigner release policy |
| 4. CommonBond | 3.74% – 10.74% | No longer charges loan origination fees |
| 5. Earnest | 3.49% – 12.78% | Annual skip-a-payment option |
| 6. SoFi | 4.23% – 11.26% | Variety of membership perks |
| 7. Discover | 4.24% – 12.99% | Cash bonus for academic performance |
| 8. Ascent | 3.39% – 14.50% | No cosigner necessary |
1. Citizens Bank graduate student loan
offers fixed-rate and variable-rate student loans Graduate student loan rate discount of 0.25 percentage points for autopay enrollment Loyalty discount of 0.25 percentage points for borrowers with another Citizens Bank account No
or prepayment penalty Loan terms of 5 years Program-specific graduate student loans for MBA, law and health care students Aggregate loan limits for graduate degrees ($150,000), MBA and law students ($225,000) and healthcare degrees ($180,000 to $350,000) Three in-school repayment options: Deferment, interest-only payments and full principal and interest payments Multiyear approval to easily borrow in the future Option to add a cosigner to secure approval or lower rates Cosigner release after three years of on-time payments
2. College Ave graduate student loan
offers fixed-rate and variable-rate student loans Interest rate discount of 0.25 percentage points for enrolling in autopay No student loan origination fee or prepayment penalty Loan terms of 5,8, 10, 15 years Graduate student loans from $1,000 up to the cost of attendance Four in-school repayment options: Full deferment, flat $25 monthly payments, interest-only payments and immediate principal and interest payments Option to add a cosigner to your College Ave student loan Prequalification tool that delivers rate estimates without affecting your credit
3. Sallie Mae Graduate School Loan
offers fixed-rate and variable-rate student loans Rate discount for enrolling in autopay of 0.25 percentage points No graduate student loan origination fee or prepayment penalty Sallie Mae student loan term of 5, 15 years Loan amounts from $1,000 up to the full cost of attendance Three repayment options for in-school borrowers: Full deferment, fixed $25 monthly payment and interest-only payments Option to
to graduate student loans
4. CommonBond Graduate Student Loan
offers fixed-rate and variable-rate student loans Interest rate discount of 0.25 percentage points for setting up automatic payments No prepayment penalty CommonBond student loan terms of…
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