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Might be worth looking at alternatives to your Grad Plus loans that the dental schools will offer you to pay for tuition this year.
You're probably going to have to figure out financial aid in July and August if you're a rising D1, and I wanted to bring up something that could save you $5,000-$10,000 if you've got some generous parents that are willing to lend you their credit score as cosigners during dental school.
For those who don't know, Grad Plus is a federal loan program that covers the cost of dental school once you've exhausted all other federal loan sources as it covers up to the cost of attendance. Stafford Unsubsidized caps out at about $40,000 per year (*corrected).
Since dental school costs way more than that, Grad Plus fills the gap. The problem with that is that Grad Plus has a 4.27% origination fee for every $1 you take out. On top of that, you'll be charged 7% interest for the upcoming school year.
If you're going to a super high cost school, ie NYU, BU, Midwestern, etc. then you want all your loans to be federal because your only choice is going to be going for forgiveness under one of the income driven repayment options.
However, if you're going in state for dental school, ie Iowa, Maryland, UNC, Alabama, Texas A&M, etc. then the math is going to support you eventually paying them back through refinancing once you've got a full dentist income.
So if you can get a low or no origination fee private loan with a 5-6% fixed interest rate, you should do that. I just ran some numbers on someone who takes out $40,000 a year in private loans at 6% with no origination fee vs $40,000 in Grad Plus and the interest savings would be over $10,000 over 4 years.
Just wondering if anyone was considering doing something like that, if you had questions, concerns, criticisms, etc.
You're probably going to have to figure out financial aid in July and August if you're a rising D1, and I wanted to bring up something that could save you $5,000-$10,000 if you've got some generous parents that are willing to lend you their credit score as cosigners during dental school.
For those who don't know, Grad Plus is a federal loan program that covers the cost of dental school once you've exhausted all other federal loan sources as it covers up to the cost of attendance. Stafford Unsubsidized caps out at about $40,000 per year (*corrected).
Since dental school costs way more than that, Grad Plus fills the gap. The problem with that is that Grad Plus has a 4.27% origination fee for every $1 you take out. On top of that, you'll be charged 7% interest for the upcoming school year.
If you're going to a super high cost school, ie NYU, BU, Midwestern, etc. then you want all your loans to be federal because your only choice is going to be going for forgiveness under one of the income driven repayment options.
However, if you're going in state for dental school, ie Iowa, Maryland, UNC, Alabama, Texas A&M, etc. then the math is going to support you eventually paying them back through refinancing once you've got a full dentist income.
So if you can get a low or no origination fee private loan with a 5-6% fixed interest rate, you should do that. I just ran some numbers on someone who takes out $40,000 a year in private loans at 6% with no origination fee vs $40,000 in Grad Plus and the interest savings would be over $10,000 over 4 years.
Just wondering if anyone was considering doing something like that, if you had questions, concerns, criticisms, etc.
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