Understanding International Student Loans

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This session is recorded, so it will be sent to your e-mail a few hours after the event so you can go through the slides and links and things at your own pace. But I'm happy to announce that we have really the first time we've done this in probably a long time, if ever, with the Heller School and Brandeis University. We have the Student Financial Services office with us today.

Lena Ferreira and she's going to go over international loans, student loans, the payment plan with the Brandeis University SFS office. So I will hand it off to Lena and she'll take us through the presentation and if we have time at the end, we'll go through some questions.

But it is just a 30 minute webinar, so we're going to keep this short just for everyone's time throughout the day. So thank you and welcome Lena to our our webinar.

Hi everyone. Let me know if you can't hear me for some reason, feel free to let us know. But I am Lena. I'm the Associate Director of Financial Aid at Brandeis. I've been here for a little over 8 years now.

And I'm working with both undergrad and graduate students. And then today we're here to just discuss about finance way for international students particularly.

Private loans.

And this is the overview of the session. So we're going to go over the cost of attendance, private loans and then just a brief overview about financial literacy.

So first of all, it's sorry, it looks a little crazy on the.

On the PowerPoint. But first of all it's the cost of attendance. So cost of attendance is both direct and indirect cost. Direct cost is basically what is billed on your account and then that includes tuition and fees and health insurance as well Indirect costs are.

Expenses are not billed at Brandeis, so that includes transportation, personal expenses, and then room and board off campus, room and board.

So usually how it works with the cost of tenants. We use that to determine financial aid eligibility. Merit Based Scholarship is awarded through the admissions process and that only covers for tuition.

And then outside of the merit based scholarship is outside scholarships for international students. We tend to advise students to look at Education USA. They have a wonderful resources about outside scholarship and in the standard outside scholarships. Websites are scholarships.com and then fastweb.com.

Other than those scholarships.

Students tend to look at private loans, so we'll go over private loans for international students.

What we recommend first doing when you're looking for private loan is going through elmselect.com. This is a comparison tools tool that we encourage students to review. It shows all the different types of loans that our students and families borrow in the past. It does a side by side comparison with all the interest rate, what they have for each loans, the repayment process.

Amendment for this.

Select will show you all of that and then you just have to select which.

Loan best meets your need and apply directly to them. So some loans you require cosigners and then there are a few that do not require cosigners.

Oops. So just to give you a view about like cosigner and no cosigner, A cosigner is basically an equal financial responsibility and legal obligation. This means that when you have a cosigner, that person, that second person is also responsible for that loan, and usually for when you're applying for a private loan. Here in the US, they do ask for.

AUS The second person to be AUS citizen or a permanent resident.

And most loans here with the cosigner tend to have a lower interest rate, and the reason is because you have two people applying for the student loan rather than just one. And unfortunately Brandeis Universities University does not cosign. So if you end up finding someone who is AUS citizen or has a permanent resident, I strongly suggest reaching out to see if that person will cosign for you.

And then there are private loans while cosigners, the only two that we have, I'm sorry.

Sorry, I have cats.

So the only two.

Loans while cosigners that we have are Empower Finance and Prodigy Finance, these loans do require documentation such as proof of identity and address admissions letter that includes the merit based scholarship And then they will ask for a history of your credit report. So that can include like if you had any debt that you have to pay or like if you have a credit card, the history of that credit card report.

Anything that shows that you had income or how you're paying for your your housing?

They'll ask for that as well. They do ask for a salary that you currently have. If you don't have salary, they'll ask for what you are expecting to have after you graduate.

And then also where work, we do have direct contact with these two lenders. So if you have questions during the process or what you're missing from the lender, feel free to reach out to Student Financial Services or me about us contacting them directly and asking where you are at at the loan progress.

So the next thing I want to note is that budgeting is an important part of of being a graduate student or just a student in general. So if you end up having your loans covering for your living expenses. So if you have a credit amount that we tend to disperse all financial aid when 10 days prior to the start of the semester and usually that means that we will give you a lump sum of a refund.

During like a few days prior to the semester. So usually budgeting is an important step because you're getting a lump sum, so that doesn't necessarily mean that you can use that to purchase a car or do whatever you want to travel.

That that credit is for your living expenses. So when you're when you end up getting the refund, sit down and create a budget to to separate rent from like what you what you're using for rent and then the rest for any personal expenses such as like things for food.

Transportation. If you're living outside of Waltham, you need money for transportation, so you'll have to set that aside.

And then any emergency funding. You also can put that aside as well, but usually how it works with refunds is that we send a lump sum if you have a credit amount prior to the start of the semester for each semester.

There are monthly payment plans available. So if you if you end up only just taking out like the mayor based scholarship and you end up having remaining balance or like a portion of tuition that you have to pay. We do offer a monthly payment plan for fall and spring. We don't offer for the summer because it's just a three month summer program, but for fall and spring it's basically the balance abide by 5.

With a one time $45.00 installment fee.

And the payment plan starts in July 15 all the way till November 15th. We do offer four months payment plan. If you end up coming to the program a little bit later, we start that four month payment plan in August.

So feel free to reach out about any payment plans. You can also do a combination of payment plans and like making a payment. So if you have a tuition balance and you only want to pay, for instance, just a remaining 5000 to it, you can make that payment 1st and then set up a payment plan for the remaining amount.

And then things to note is financial literacy. We do have a lot of financial literacy on campus, but the first one that we always suggest it's going through I grad it's a financial literacy tool that shows you different types of worksheets or workshops and a lot of PowerPoint and information online. This is available to all Brandi students. It gives you the the four information that's showing on the the PowerPoint.

Money management.

There's also a budgeting tool. So if you don't have your own way of budgeting your finance, there is a simple tool on Igrad to use and then just managing of your loan and debt. There's also information about other calculation of debt to income, calculation loans and so forth. It's actually a wonderful website and we strongly suggest students using it.

And then I do want to mention that there are like Brandeis emergency funds. So if you're so, don't hesitate to reach out to Syria Financial Services. We do tend to have funding available. We always suggest about reaching the Brandeis emergency fund. It is very limited, but if you are having emergency like for instance you have a medical emergency but you can't cover for the medical expenses.

You can always reach out to us to see if we will cover it and then same way like if you you have a unexpected travel like for instance you have to go back home for whatever reason, you can always reach out about having it covered. But I do want to state that this does not cover for tuition or anything on the cost of tenants. This is more of an unexpected expense that's outside of your budget and that you did not expect to have it happen.

And so you can reach out for this. This is available to all students.

So whether you have existing questions or are planning next semester next year, or for like life after graduation, I strongly suggest that you feel that you reach out to Student financial services. We have available appointments from 9:00 to 5:00. We also have off hour appointments on Thursday from from 5:00 to 6:00 PM Eastern Time. We do also offer financial literacy. It's through our.

Student financial services representative and their name is Willow and she's.

Amazing. So if you feel feel free to reach out and set up a financial literacy with them.

And then same day appointments every day from from. Most of the time it's from 11:50. You can call at 9:00 AM to schedule an appointment. Feel free to reach out to me through e-mail or even just give me a call and we can talk about any finance information that you need. Or if you need help with the private loan options, feel free to reach out about that.

So that's it. That was just more of a general overview of like all the financial aid, private loans. Feel free to ask any questions that you have. I know it's very short, but if you have questions, feel free to ask right now.

Thank you so much, Lena. I think I actually have a couple of questions. I might go back to this slide about budget. So you had mentioned like a refund like 10 days prior to school starting. Is this if someone receives like a loan and the loan goes directly to Brandeis and then Brandeis gives some money back to students or what?

Play.

Yeah. So do you just clarify what I mentioned, it's basically if you end up having any financial aid that's over the the tuition and fees and health insurance costs. So that includes like if you have a loan that exceeds like the the direct cost, we we are required to send back any credit amount as a refund 10 days prior to the start of the semester.

Oh.

So any credit amount, and that also includes outside scholarships as well. If you have, if you found an outside scholarship that covers for living expenses, it gets dispersed to us first. So all financial aid is dispersed. We dispersed it onto a student account.

1st and then have any credit amount sent as a refund.

OK, awesome. And then my other question was about the payment plan. Is it, it's dispersed by between 5 semesters or is it five months?

The months, OK.

Oh, and that.

So I meant five months. I'm just looking at it.

OK, so yeah, we just want to clarify to the student.

So it's divided by 5 months.

OK, awesome.

And each semester.

Great. So my last question then we'll move on to some in the chat is the Brandeis emergency funds, these are only for like students who are like on campus enrolled, correct? No. OK.

No. So it's for any Brand I students as long as they're an active student.

OK, an active student. OK, awesome. All right, let's move over. I see some coming in.

So do most private loan service providers enable you disperse less than your original approved loan amount?

So that is determined by us. So we can only award up to the cost of attendance. So we do have a budget where we use for off campus living. So if it exceeds the cost of attendance minus any like merit based scholarship received or any outside scholarship receive we can only award up to that amount. So for instance like.

The cost of tenants, I'm going to give a round Number is 50,000 and your scholarship covers 10,000.

We would only give 40,000 if you like. Your loan eligible eligibility is only 40,000, so it's cost of tenants minus any A received.

OK, OK.

But we do have leniency, leniency on that. So for instance like.

So our budget for off campus living is is around 2000 a month. So that includes room and board. So your rent and food.

If, for whatever reason, you end up finding a place to live that exceeds that amount, you can always reach out to me and we could do a budget increase request.

So that that we can increase the cost of attendance to actually add more loans to your to your student account. So that's a possibility. So we don't necessarily just approve all of it right away if it does exceed our own cost of tenants. We reached out asking if there's any additional information that you can provide like for instance lease or any personal or like budget expenses that are for educational purposes.

Medical expenses is included for us to include the cost of tenants. If you need to make a purchase of a laptop, we can include that in the budget and that can your private loans can cover that.

OK, OK.

I know that that question is more specific, so feel free to reach out to me if you have more questions about that.

We have another question that came in. I applied through M Power to a student loan, but I was rejected for a reason I do not understand. Can Brandeis potentially help me with that?

Yes, feel free to reach out to us about it. We do. I think there was a few students who had a reject because of our program status, but there was like a misunderstanding. So if it if it's that.

Issue you can reach out to us and we can reach out to empower about it, but if there's anything else other beyond that.

Still and then we can take a look at it.

And we have another question about when you can apply for a loan. Is that when you're already in the US or before you make your trip to the US?

So I would suggest applying.

The first instant you got your admissions letter so that it for Empower, they tend to take a little over a month for the application to go through. So if you already have your admissions letter and you're you really want to go to Brandeis, start applying for the private loans.

Especially with empowering prodigy they take, they tend to take a little bit over a month for you to get an approval and they also ask for a lot of information like I suggest like I indicated on the PowerPoint. So that usually takes time to get all the information and send it to them. So feel free to apply now if need be and we do, but we don't certify the loan until June.

The reasons? Because that's when we start awarding financial aid, adding merit based scholarship or any outside scholarship.

And someone is asking can I apply for a loan from Nigeria apart from M Power? So are there any other loan options?

Yes. So if you're looking at your country's loan, you can apply to the private loan in another country.

It just.

You just have to have them contact us. If it's a student loan, we usually work with them directly about having the money sent to us. So you as most private loans send us a check or they they disperse it to us electronically and then we'll disperse it into the student account.

2.

So we'll work with the private lender. So if there's anything outside of like Elm Select, all the loans outside of Elm Select will. You can send us the information to us directly and we'll work with them. But it also depends on the your country's private loans. Some countries do disperse to the student directly, so you'll have to check with them about what how their their loan progress processes.

And is a loan dispersed as a lump sum or divided into two semesters?

So it depends on how you apply for it. So the loan can be divided into fall, spring and summer if you're taking summer courses.

It depends on how you're applying for it. So usually the lender will let you know do you want do you want the loan for fall semester only? And if it's for fall semester only, then we would only award for fall semester and that's during the application process.

When you're applying for the for the student loan.

But usually we suggest doing it for the full academic year so that you when you're when you apply for the loan is for fall, spring, and when spring comes you don't have to worry about making a payment because the loans are already there.

And if you take a private loan, will the amount be deducted from your cost of attendance?

So the amount so it's usually how it works, is that student accounts working? It's you get charged only tuition and fees if you need the most in task with students are required to take the health insurance. So it will be tuition and fees and health insurance costs on your student account and then the merit base will go directly towards tuition. The loan will cover any remaining balance.

No.

Of the tuition and tuition fees and health insurance.

And then any like amount beyond that amount, it's considered credit and that's where you can take that credit as a refund.

Yeah.

So it does go directly to your account 1st and then cover any remaining balance and then afterwards you'll get the rest as a refund.

And we have a few questions in here about your e-mail address or which e-mail they can send.

OK, cool.

You could use either or Finita Brandeis or SOS. I'm proud to include my e-mail.

It's my initial L Ferrara at brandeis.edu.

Mm-hmm.

But they usually any of those emails are fine. They usually direct all graduate students to me anyways.

OK, awesome.

We have an interesting question here. If someone applies for a loan but then they end up finding a scholarship over the summer, is it easy to cancel the loan or?

Yes, it's very easy to cancel loans so you so if you are looking, we do have situations like this, so if you're if you're waiting for funding from home to come to you or funding from outside anywhere.

Some students tend to.

Get a private loan to cover them in the meantime.

So that they're not dropped from their courses. Because we do drop people from their courses if if there's no payment for the remaining amount. So setting up a loan is just like a pending amount, and then we can cancel the loan once the funding comes through.

OK.

So we can cancel at any time once the student reaches out.

And for a 12 month program or even a nine month program, when do you start paying back a loan?

It depends on the lender.

I know Empire.

Three to six months leniency after you graduate. So most student loans I know of always gives about six months to ferment so that you you have time to find your job or you're selling in your job, and then you start repayment. But repayment can begin at any time, even during school. If you want to pay your loans while you're in school, you can do that as well, but typical repayment starts six months after you graduate.

And this is an interesting question. Which would you recommend Empower or Prodigy?

So we can't suggest or recommend a loan is actually against federal regulations.

Play.

Feel free to apply to both and see which one has the lower interest rate and take that loan. SO or or like. Ask them directly like the interest rate and the repayment process and whichever best meets your needs you can just take that loan.

So we have time for a couple more questions. Is there a reason why my approved loan was less than my cost of attendance? And can I apply for two different loans at the same time?

2.

So they so if it's approved by the lender, that's up to the lender and you have to reach out to the lender about it, 'cause we would only award things within the cost of tenants and not less than the cost of tenants. So it's most likely the lender just approving you for a smaller loan so you can reach out to them and ask why the the lender is only approving that amount.

And it might be because.

They're viewing the cost of the tenants differently and feel free to reach out to see if they can increase it.

I'm sorry, what was the second question again?

Oh, it was.

If they can apply for two different loans at the same time if it was a smaller amount.

Yes, Yep, you can apply for two different loans. We do have students who apply for the same loans every semester, so that's something that you can do as well. But like I said earlier, it's better to apply for the whole academic year so you don't have to reapply every semester.

And we have a question that came in. Can you please explain the monthly payment plan again?

So it's basically the balance, the remaining balance divided by 5. So if you if you had a remaining balance of like 10,000 for a false master, it's just a balance divided by 5. So it's like 2500 monthly payment plan.

With $45.00 one time installment fee for the first payment.

Awesome. And let's see, we have a question. Will you be sharing this webinar? I joined a bit late, so yes, we will be. This webinar is recorded and it will be sent to your e-mail, I believe 24 or 48 hours from now. So you will have access to the slides, all the links, the emails.

And you can re watch this to kind of refresh your memory.

I'll update the slides a little bit because of the semester.

OK.

And change that to mold.

And then we had a question about the vid off form. So can a private loan be used for my Vida form or must I use personal funds?

Yes, a private loan can be used for that.

You just have to show that you were awarded it.

OK.

Let's see. So again, we are going to end pretty soon. Let's see there anymore.

Questions.

OK. I think we got to most of the let's see some repeat ones. So again we will be, let me put the last slide on here.

So if you didn't get your question answered, or if you have a more detailed question you've applied for a loan. Again, feel free to reach out to the Student Financial Services office. Their e-mail is here on the slide. They also have.

Zoom appointments you can do as well.

And again, this recording is going to be shared with everyone.

And we wish you all the best of luck in applying for loans and and applying for other scholarships as well. Again, Education USA is a good one and I think Lena also mentioned in the beginning here.

Ellen Select is also a good way to compare loans and see what your options are. Thank you everyone. We're going to end now. It's 12:30, but we hope you all have a good day.

Bye everyone.