Loan Programs for International Students w/o US Co-Signer???

Thanks for the info. I've updated the list.

The biggest disappointment comes from Columbia, though.

Why would you want to attend a program that doesn't believe in supporting international students who do not as yet have the means to pay the hefty tuition fees? There's so much to be said about having a policy that advocates diversity on campus and actually putting it into practice. You will be better off spending the time you are gonna waste searching for a no US-co signer loan program on preparing for admission to a top program. Time is a valuable resource and you should put it to the best optimal use possible. I'd suggest that you cast your net wider and apply to schools which actively supports int'l students and de-prioritize those schools which do not, like Columbia and Ross. You should add Olin Business School at Wash U to the list of schools which has a no US-co signer loan program in place as well. As a final piece of advice, do check back with the program before you submit your application that the loan program will be available to you, should you be successfully admitted to the school. Many int'l students were left stranded when Ross suddenly terminated its int'l student loan program well into the admission cycle this year. And quite a handful of them would not have applied to Ross had this intent been made known to them. So, be sure to do your due diligence!

Well, you do have a point. When a school like Columbia doesn't offer easy financing options to international students, while schools considered far lower in terms of reputation and all are offering the same, it does raise some suspicion about the school's intent over accepting international students.

slumdog and finmaster,

I would be careful about "raising suspicion" about Columbia's intent regarding international students. If you check the facts, you will realize that CBS's student body includes 38% international students, more than many of the schools that actually do offer no-cosigner loans. CBS obviously has other resources that it trusts to entice some great international students to its applicant pool. A couple of things to consider:

- The fact that CBS has that many international students without offering the no-cosigner loan shows how strong the program actually is. Some lower ranked programs actually use no-cosigner loans to entice better quality international students. If anything, suspicions should be raised about the intents of these lower ranked schools. This is because the jobs international students get coming out of these programs, might not enable them to pay off the loans as easily.

- Many, if not most, of the admitted applicants to top programs have U.S. based cosigners. During my application process, I personally came across several such applicants on different forums.

As an international applicant, I do understand how frustrating this can be. But nothing is written in stone. In the middle of the last application season, Wharton closed its no-cosigner loan program only to restart it again in March of this year. Similarly, Ross had a no-cosigner loan available for those enrolling in 2011 but not for students enrolling this year. Who knows, maybe by the time you guys enroll in 2013, they might have the program back.

Keep checking with those programs that do not have a no-cosigner loan but did in the past. It might suddenly become available, although I doubt that will be the case with CBS.

You couldn't be more correct.

Of course, Columbia is a great program and of course I'm going to apply. I don't know how am I gonna manage with the finances but you know what, chuck it, who cares? Will see what happens when and if I get in. Hopefully something or the other will work out.

Having said that, it does though pain my heart a bit to see a reputed program like Columbia's not supporting its international students enough. That's just it.

I would add the maximum loan size to your list. Though everyone is in different situation, there always exist a group of wannabes desiring to take full CoA as a loan. Frankly, I'm one of those. E.g. Stern provides only up to 45k loan to internationals with no US-cosigner. Tuck states that it does not provide full CoA loan though does not state the cap. If you have similar info on Kellog, Darden, Haas, I would very appreciate that

NewMBAApplicant,

You bring up a good point. Most schools do NOT provide the full Cost of Education. Common cases include providing up to the cost of tuition and fees or a certain percentage of the CoE. I am providing below the details of the schools whose no-cosigner loan programs I am aware of:

Wharton: Up to 80% of the Cost of Education.

Booth: Up to the FULL Cost of Education.

Tuck: Up to the full cost of tuition and fees. Admitted students (domestic AND international) with greater need are eligible for an additional smaller loan that Tuck provides itself. Ends up being the same as Wharton, Darden etc.

Darden: Up to 80% of the Cost of Education.

Cornell Johnson: Up to the cost of tuition and fees only. It is very important to note for international students, that you can NOT use the Cornell loan on your Declaration of Finances, which you will need to send to the school to get your I-20. So for Cornell to send you the I-20, you will need to show the full Cost of Education for one year from your own funds (which is something like $76,000). Cornell is the only school that I am aware of that does this.


In most cases the schools will ask for your finances (tax returns, salary receipts etc), in order to determine how much loan you will be eligible for. This is usually not a big deal at all.

It is worth mentioning that most top schools expect you to have some finances of your own, which is why they don't provide the full CoE. If you are good enough to get admitted to any of these programs, you probably have had a successful career so far, and should have some decent savings.

Also note that the figures I provided are valid for those matriculating in 2012. For those applying this year (matriculating in 2013), some of the figures might change. Although any major changes are unlikely, I would advise all applicants to check with the schools when the fall application season gets into full swing.

Hope this helps.

So can it be safely assumed that almost all major MBA programs, except CBS and Cornell, will provide at least 80% (roughly) to the international students as loan?

Hi everyone,

The info is really helpful here. I was going through the Ross School's Financial Aid programme details and came across this:

https://www.bus.umich.edu/Admissions/Fin ... gnLoan.htm

Isn't this a loan program for Int'l students without a US co-signer, or is it something different?
Also, Haas doesn't provide full COA to Int'l students in loans, infact it mentions a cap of $45,000 for the ENTIRE duration of the program, if I recall correctly.
Stern has some special loan for students from India but I couldn't find any details about that. Anyone knows something about this? Even Tuck doesn't offer a full COA loan to Int'l students and expects some 35-45 % contribution from students. Is it possible for students to borrow through loans first in their country and then apply for loans AGAIN with the lenders associated with the schools to cover the costs?
I think we can summarize that schools which will allow loans to Int'l students (without US co-signer) up to full COA are: Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Sloan, Kellogg, Booth, Duke. Any additions to or deletions from this list?

No, Ross does NOT provide no-cosigner loan for int' admits of the class entering this Sept 2012. The way they state about their loan program is easy to be misunderstood. If you read the link above in details, they say "... loan is available to Ross international students with an admit term (term you start classes) no later than Winter 2012..." Winter 2012 means the period of Jan - April 2012. I was admitted to their class of 2014 entering this Sept but had to drop the offer because no no-cosigner loan available.


As I learned from Kellogg website, Kellogg does NOT provide no-cosigner loans for Int' admits either
https://www.northwestern.edu/sfs/loan_in ... loans.html
It would be great if anyone can help verify, as I really hope I am wrong

Hey Gaby,

I think we might have confused 'without a US co-signer' and 'NO co-signer'. As far as Kellogg is concerned, I have personally asked this and the reply was:
"We do not have any loans that does not require a co-signer but we have the NU loan option B that requires an international co-signer. Please see the information below.
The school offers loans and some merit based scholarships to international students. The NU Loan program has two types of loans for international students to meet their financial aid need. NU Loan Option A requires a US citizen or permanent resident co-signer and NU Loan Option B will allow for an international co-signer."
Most of the programs will need an Int'l co-signer (which shouldn't be difficult), but even if they don't, I'd suppose the rate would be favourable with one.
I hope this helps you in some way.

Btw Ross has a separate section which lists regional banks for most countries which do provide pvt. loans to students. I called and spoke to one such bank in India a few months back, they have crazy interest rates as expected (13+%) depending on the options, but they're there..

Thanks for starting the thread and creating this list! very important info.

You may add WUSTL Olin to the list of colleges providing non co signor loans to intl students...the rate of interest is a flat 10%

Are there any banks in the EU that provide loans to finance MBA in the US?

Ross and Columbia did not change their loan policy for international students in Sep'14 intake
Are there any updates in the list of schools which do not provide no co-cosigner loans now?