International Student Financing in 2010

As we did last year, we would like to provide a quick update as we start 2010 for international students looking to finance an education in the US. We begin 2010 in a much more settled position that we did 2009, with loans available, but still with constraints to education financing as a fallout from the worldwide economic turmoil over the past two years.

Although many lenders have gone out of business or canceled their international student loans, and private loans in general have been cut back dramatically, International Student Loan has loans available to international students in the US. These loan programs require a co-signer with excellent credit, and require “school certification.” Visit International Student Loan and click the Apply Now button to begin your online application.

There are no longer any direct-to-consumer, non-school certified private student loans available to anyone. These DTC loans – ones that did not need to be certified by your school, and therefore could process very quickly and let you borrow more than the total amount that your school permits – were very popular with international and US students. But because of perceived and actual abuse, DTC student loans are gone and may not come back any time soon.

For international students, the basics of sound education financing become even more important. Those basics haven’t changed:

1. Be very realistic about your budgeting and financial needs, and choosing a college that is within your budget. Visit these two posts to see more on being realistic about your choice of college and setting an accurate school budget.

2. Consider a community college for the first two years of your education. Visit this post to learn how international students save money at community colleges.

3. Get as much in scholarships as you can. Start with your school, your government, and look online on sites like International Education Financial Aid.

4. If you need loans, check with International Student Loan and your school about the availability of a loan program for you.

Best of luck as we begin 2010. From an international education financing perspective, things are much better than last year, but we still have a long way to go to make an international education affordable to anyone with the initiative to pursue one!

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Posted in International Scholarships, International Student Loans