Alternative Student Loans

Important Things to Consider When Selecting the Right Lender and Alternative Student Loan for You:

• Understand the ultimate cost of the loan over its lifetime. Compare annual percentage rates (APR) vs. interest rates and fees to determine the real cost of the loan.
• Be aware of what the monthly payments will be upon graduation or leaving school and how that will affect your lifestyle after college.
• Find out what the “borrower benefits” really mean to you.  How is each benefit achieved and how are they kept throughout repayment.  What happens if you miss an “on time” payment?
• Are there forbearance or deferment options?  Understand what additional cost these may have for you.
• How does the lender capitalize interest? (i.e. once when repayment begins or quarterly)
• Notify your lender of any change in address, name or repayment problems—lack of communication is one of the first steps toward delinquency. 
• Borrowers should always explore federal loan options first as direct to consumer loans or alternative student loans may have higher interest rates and fees.

Our students have found the following lenders to have good approval rates as well as good customer service: 

• Sallie Mae Smart Options Loan
• PNC Solution Loan
• Discover Student Loan
• Wells Fargo Collegiate Loan
• Chase Select Loan
• SunTrust Academic Answer Loan
• Citibank CitiAssist Loan
• US Bank No Fee Loan

Law and Graduate students may find that lenders have an alternative loan designed for their field of study. The University of Oregon does not recommend nor do we have a special affiliation with any lender. Lenders are listed in random order.

Please refer to this 2008 Guide to Alternative Loans before proceeding with your application.

Additional consumer information regarding alternative student loans can be obtained from the Project on Student Debt and from the private, commercial site FinAid.org.

The Federal Trade Commission provides a consumer guide that offers advice on how to spot deceptive marketing and tips on how to navigate the loan consolidation market.

For more information on alternative student loan lenders, please contact the Office of Student Financial Aid and Scholarships.

Loan Periods

Loan periods refer to the terms of enrollment for which the loan applies.  These are very important when you apply for a loan for several reasons.

• There can only be one loan certification per loan application and approval.
• We are unable to certify one loan over more than one academic year.
• Summer at University of Oregon is considered a “trailer” and, therefore, ends an academic year and cannot be included in a loan for the following academic year.
• Loans cannot exceed estimated expenses for either the academic year or on a term by term basis.
• If you are borrowing a “look back” loan for past amounts owed the University, it is often difficult for us to realize your intent. It helps us if you call or write our office to tell us of your intention or if  you use a loan period that has already passed.

Loan periods at the University of Oregon for 2009-10 are:

Undergraduates and Graduate Students:

Law:

Process for Alternative Loans

You—

• decide which lender to apply with
• complete all necessary paperwork
• provide all necessary signatures

Lender—

• sends us an electronic certification request

 We certify—

• that you are an eligible student based on lender criteria
• that you have unmet educational expenses that this loan will cover
• what date the funds should be sent to the University 

After all above steps are completed—

• lender sends funds to the University via EFT (Electronic Funds Transfer)
• funds are paid directly to your student account with the University
• tuition and anything owing the University is paid
• if there is a balance owed back to you, the University will either process a Direct Deposit into your checking or savings account or process a paper check for you to pick up at the Student Loan Department. (Checks will be mailed to mailing address on DuckWeb if not picked up during first two weeks of each term.)

Things to remember:

• If you want your loan to cover education related expenses for something not already in your cost of attendance, you will need to request a budget increase. The revision request must be in the Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships prior to our receiving the loan certification request.   
• We are able to skew alternative loan payments if your documented educational expenses are different from one term to another. A written request is needed to notify us of your wishes to have the loan skewed.  
• You are not required to file a FAFSA in order for us to certify an alternative loan; however, because of computer limitations we must manually pay funds through for students enrolled less than full time.  We run monthly reports to help us find students in this situation.  You may want to monitor this and notify us when funds should disburse (10 days before term begins) if you fit into this category.  
• Some lenders will loan to students who are not fully admitted or are enrolled less than ½ time.  Our computer “knows” these situations make a student ineligible for federal aid which means we must manually pay these loan funds. You monitoring this and notifying us when funds have arrived would be beneficial.  
• We currently certify loans daily and receive records from lenders daily.  The Business Affairs Office prepares refund checks twice a week so there may be a lag between funds paying to your student account and you receiving a refund check.
• We are unable to certify loans for the upcoming academic year prior to July because of necessary computer upgrades.  
• August and September are high volume months for all aspects of the financial aid process. At this time of year, certification of loans may lag by several weeks.