Misconceptions about Kellogg - International student loan

Disclaimer: I have obviously become a diehard Kellogg fan. Henceforth all my posts will concentrate around Kellogg. However, all such posts will be strictly about Kellogg and will in no way be meant to disparage or spread false information about other schools. I haven't visited other schools nor will I be doing an MBA from other schools so I simply don't have the right to comment about it. All schools have their pros and cons and there is really no distinguishing between them. It's all about the fit ;).

Aside: Please refer the official Kellogg students blog at http://kelloggmbastudents.wordpress.com for more inside school

I hope my previous post busted some of the myths about Kellogg especially in regard to resources it provides for Entrepreneurship. In this post I will attempt to clear the air over another issue:

International Student Loan
For international students, while applying, one big question is whether they will be able to avail student loans in the US without the need for a US co-signor. The reasons for this are:

1. Normally, an international student requires a US co-signor in order to obtain a loan in the US.
2. Loans in the US are much cheaper than in the home countries of most international students.

Most top schools loudly claim that they provide international student loans without the need for a US co-signor; and they do! To estimate how important this is, note the recent developments in Wharton where such a loan arrangement was withdrawn with the old provider and Wharton scrambled to arrange this with another provider. Read about it here and here.

Now, coming to the point, as with other things (it beats me why) Kellogg seems to not toot it's horn very well in this area. There is a big misconception about Kellogg that such loans do not exist for international students; but they do! Here's a comprehensive official link about the exact loan facility available to international students: Kellogg NU Loan. This loan is available to all international students and the process is quite simple. The only minor downside to the loan is that the interest rate is 7.5% - which I find quite expensive. With a US co-signor the rate comes down to somewhere between 4-5% which is nothing compared to the 9-12% interest that an Indian has to bear for student loans.

So, in summary, international students can apply to Kellogg without too much concern about loan taking ability. If you have any questions, let me know.