The Sallie Mae Dental School Loan is available for graduate students pursuing dentistry, endodontics, oral and maxillofacial surgery, orthodontics, pediatric dentistry, periodontics, and prosthodontics at a degree-granting institution. It offers fixed interest rates ranging from 5.75% to 8.37% APR and variable interest rates ranging from 3.62% to 8.37% APR.
Also, the loan offers a 20-year repayment term with a 12-month grace period (the federal Grad PLUS program offers six months) and an additional 48 months of deferment during residency or fellowship, which is not available through the federal program. Eligible Sallie Mae Dental School Loan customers can take advantage of the graduated repayment period as well.
Customers can choose to make monthly interest-only or fixed payments while in school or defer payments until after school. Also, customers are eligible for an interest rate that’s 0.50 percentage points lower when they opt for an in-school interest-only payment over the deferred payment option and an interest rate 0.25 percentage points lower if they choose an in-school fixed payment over the deferred payment option.
The Sallie Mae Dental School Loan additionally offers:
- Cosigner release: After the graduate, meet certain credit requirements, and make 12 on-time principal and interest payments, which Sallie Mae calls the shortest qualification period among private student lenders, customers (primary borrowers) may apply to have their cosigner released from the loan.
- Rate reduction for auto-debit: Customers can reduce their interest rate by 0.25 percentage points by enrolling in the automatic debit option.
- Free access to credit scores: Customers, including cosigners, have access to their FICO Credit Score on a quarterly basis, along with information about factors that affect credit scores and why monitoring credit scores is important.
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