Law School Loans: A Guide to Paying for Your Law Education

Law is a great career choice, but we know law school can be really expensive. You might be wondering if there is financial aid available for you and what your financing options are of you are an international student. Below we take a look at how you can finance your law school career and how law school loans can help to kick start your studies!

Financial Aid and International Students

Unfortunately, international students don’t have all the options and benefits that are available to U.S. citizens and permanent residents when it comes to financial aid. Under the correct circumstances (and with the right paperwork) international students can receive scholarships for studying law. But apart from scholarships, there aren’t many other options available. One of the more common options for international students are loans for law school.

Law School Loans

Student debt is one of the most common forms of debt in America. Many students from different fields of studies use student loans to finance their education. This includes both U.S. residents and international students. Let’s take a look at the different types of loans available to students.

Federal Loans

Federal loans are offered by the federal government. These loans can be used as student loans for law school. The great thing about federal loans is the fact that the interest rates are not based on your credit score. It is generally the same for every borrower. Federal loans have a variety of repayment options available that help students after they graduated. It offers (amongst others) an income-based repayment option where your monthly installment is determined by the income you earn.

Unfortunately, visa holders and immigrants don’t qualify for federal loans. But, DACA recipients may qualify for state financial aid. They may also be eligible for aid from their own schools.

Private Loans

Private loans work a lot like federal loans, except they are offered by private lenders and not the federal government. Private lenders offer various types of loans for law school, personal loans being one of them. Many international students make use of a personal loan to fund their law school career.

Law School Loans for Visa Holders

As mentioned before, visa holders and international students don’t qualify for federal loans for law school. This makes private loans the best loan option for visa holders. International students may still encounter challenges when applying for loans for law school, however. There are not that many lenders who offer loans for law school to international students.

Why Most Lenders Won’t Work with F1 Students

Conventional lenders in the U.S. are often not willing to help students on an F1 visa. Let’s take a look at why this is.

No Credit History

Most international students don’t have a credit history or proper credit report in the U.S. yet. This means you also won’t have a good credit score. For lenders, this is a big risk since they have no guarantee that you will repay your loan, based on your history. This is one of the reasons student loans for law school are often then rejected for international students.

Foreigners Can Leave the U.S. at Any Time

Non-citizens don’t yet have the right to be in the U.S. permanently and can also return to their home country at any time. Lenders will have a hard time to get their money back from someone who isn’t in America. So the risk is too high for lenders to provide loans to international students considering their ability to jump ship at any time.

Limited options for a Co-signer

Most lenders require co-signers who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents. International students generally have fewer relatives and friends in the U.S. So, it is often very hard for them to find someone who is willing to co-sign with them for a loan. Since most lenders require foreigners to sign with a co-signer, this is often an obstacle in getting law school loans.

Lack of Required Paperwork

International students often don’t have the required paperwork to qualify for a loan. This may include things like visas, work eligibility, and authorization, or written job offers.

Getting law school loans as an international student can seem impossible when you look at all the obstacles explained above. The good news is that Stilt specializes in providing loans to visa holders and immigrants!

How to Get Law School Loans with Stilt

If you are an international student, you can get law school student loans with Stilt. Let’s take a look at how it works.

Apply

Go through Stilt’s eligibility criteria and make sure you have everything in order for your application. Then, apply online! Applying online makes the process so much faster and simpler! You will receive feedback on your application within 24 hours of applying. A follow-up call may be scheduled if there are a few details that have to be cleared up.

Get Approved

Once all the boxes are ticked, you will receive a loan offer and promissory note to sign. Sign and return it if you accept the loan offer. The funds will be disbursed to your account and it should reflect within 2-3 business days.

Start Repayment

The only thing left to do now is to start repaying your law school loan. Set up your repayment method and go make a success of law school! It’s that simple!

Refinancing Law School Loans

After a while of faithful repayments on your law school loans, you can consider refinancing your law school loan.

There are three benefits to refinancing law school student loans:

1. Lower interest rates
2. You can opt for a better repayment plan that suits your needs
3. Cheaper monthly payments

Just make sure you get a better and cheaper loan offer when you decide to refinance your law school loans.

Law School Loan Forgiveness

Law school loan forgiveness is when the balance of your loan is forgiven after a certain amount of repayments. This option is generally only available to U.S. citizens. There might, however, be some cases where foreigners working in the U.S. are able to get law school student loans forgiveness.

Conclusion

Finances do not have to prevent you from fulfilling your dream of going to law school – even if you are an international student. Apply for a private law school loan today and go and reach your dreams tomorrow!

Alyssa Francisco

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