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Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Chicago GSB Clears Hurdles for International Students Seeking Loans

The Chicago Graduate School of Business (GSB) remains committed to finding funding for all of its students, both domestic and international, despite recent changes to its lending partner programs. In fact, the loan application process may prove smoother than ever thanks to a new online system.

This according to Rosemaria Martinelli, Chicago GSB director of admissions and financial aid, who reached out to us here at Clear Admit in the hopes of clarifying any confusion that may have resulted from announcements earlier this month that Chicago has ended its program with lending partner IDAPP.

“We were immediately able to get another loan program for international students with very much the same terms,” she said. That program has been locked in, and Chicago GSB is now just finalizing the terms, Martinelli continued. She expects that an announcement regarding the new lender and program will go out sometime in early August.

The loan process on the international student’s end will be seamless, Martinelli continued. “My job is just to calm down those who need to take out loans,” she said. “There is a guaranteed loan for international students – just the vendor or lender name will change this year.”

And because the university will act as guarantor of the loan, students need simply provide some basic application information. It is not a credit-based loan at all, Martinelli said.

In fact, the changes to the program could bring some distinct advantages, Martinelli pointed out. “It’s actually going to be much easier because our new system will likely be all done online versus the paper-based application we had in the past,” she said. “I really can’t imagine that there will be any more hiccups applying for loans.”

Confusion around the lending issue may have stemmed from newspaper reports earlier this month suggesting that Chicago had lost its ability to fund international students, says Martinelli. “This is absolutely not true,” she stated emphatically.

What is true is this: Chicago learned at the end of June that its lending partner, the Illinois Designated Account Purchase Program (IDAPP), was unable to renew its own line of credit with a private lender due to disruptions in the capital markets, which means that Chicago is no longer able to provide graduate students with federal Stafford, Graduate PLUS and Alternative Loans through its partnership with IDAPP and the School as Lender Program as of fall quarter 2008.

This means that students who have applied for loans for the 2008-2009 school year through the university’s partnership with IDAPP need to look elsewhere in the marketplace to obtain loans from other lenders, with the guidance and support of the financial aid staff. “Domestic students are not really impacted because they have so many other options,” Martinelli said. But because international students have a unique set of challenges in finding resources to finance their education, Chicago GSB focused its attention on finding a replacement loan program for them, Martinelli continued.

And thanks to the quick work of the Chicago GSB financial aid team, that replacement loan program has already been found, Martinelli assured us. So prospective Chicago GSB students – both from the U.S. and elsewhere – can breathe a sigh of relief.

“Chicago GSB is definitely committed to finding funding for all our students regardless of citizenship,” she said, “because diversity is so important to us on so many levels as part of the education process.”

For answers to frequently asked questions regarding changes in student loan funding at the University of Chicago, please click here.

# posted by Clear Admit @ 10:36 am in General, MBA News, School: Chicago

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