A guide to education loans in the USA for Indian students

by Natanya Herzstein | In Guides and Tools, Pick of the month, Homepage Slider | 5 July 2021 | Updated on: November 29th, 2023

Our lives would be so much simpler if we could snap our fingers and propel ourselves down a dream career path. By getting a higher education, though, we’re halfway there. But for hundreds of thousands of Indian students who want to earn a degree in the USA, an education loan from the right lender with the right rates can be complicated. At least, it looks that way at first – but MPOWER Financing has some tricks up its sleeve to help fund your dreams.

Potential Education Loan Challenges

Finding out all the requirements and logistics and costs that are necessary to apply to a university in the USA can be a time-consuming, exhausting, and challenging process. And that’s not even the expensive part!

That’s where education loans come in. The application process can be tricky even for American students, so be prepared that Indian students looking for education loans may face additional obstacles that could limit their eligibility for a loan.

Most traditional banks and lenders in the USA have a few fundamental requirements before they even consider giving potential borrowers a loan. But each one is either complicated or impossible to fulfill for international students:

  • Good credit history: To qualify for a loan, lenders want to know that you’ve always paid other loans, such as credit card bills or car payments, in full and on time. But if you’ve never had those balances, then you won’t have a credit history to show in order to prove your reliability.
  • Cosigner: Lenders know that sometimes borrowers can’t make payments, but they still want to get their money. To make sure they do, they require cosigners on the loan who can cover your payments as a backup. The catch is that the cosigner must be a citizen or permanent resident of the USA and also have good credit, so Indian students would need to know someone who both fits those requirements and is willing to vouch for their ability to repay their commitment.  
  • Collateral: Another way that lenders can protect their investment is to require collateral from the borrower equal to or exceeding the value of the loan. This means that someone in your family would need to have significant assets they’re willing to risk, especially if the rupee is weak against the dollar.

Education Loans

 

Eligibility for Higher Education Loans

But some lenders have your back. MPOWER Financing was founded specifically to provide an obstacle-free loan process for Indian international students who want to get an education in the USA. In contrast with lenders who regulate applicants, MPOWER instead has three simple conditions to determine if you’re a good candidate for a loan:

  • Applicants must be within 2 years of graduating or about to start a 1- or 2-year program, and can be studying any major or degree.
  • Applicants must be an international student, DACA recipient, American citizen, refugee, or asylum seeker.
  • Applicants must be admitted to or currently attending one of the 400+ approved schools in the USA.

That’s it. If you meet those criteria, then you’re eligible to apply for an education loan in the USA based on your future potential. And to make things even easier, before you start the application process you can get a sense of what your payments would be by using MPOWER’s student loan calculator.

Then, once you’re officially approved for a loan, you get to enjoy the benefits of working with MPOWER to help finance your education.

  • Fixed-interest rates allow you to plan your payment schedule and build your credit history.
  • Scholarships are available for you and your friends so you can focus on your education and not on your expenses.
  • Comprehensive support, from resume help to visa support letters, will guide your next steps.

MPOWER’s goal is to make the complicated and prohibitive process of getting an education loan in the USA less intimidating, so reach out to us anytime if you have questions. Attending university in a new country can be daunting, but with MPOWER’s international student loans for Indian students, paying for it needn’t be.

Author: View all post by Natanya Herzstein

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