New International Loan Program at Chicago Booth

International business school applicants received more good news last week, when the University of Chicago Booth School of Business announced a new loan program for international students. Launched in partnership with JPMorgan Chase, the program will give these students access to private educational loans without requiring a co-signer.

Under the terms of the new deal, JPMorgan Chase will provide financing to qualified international students for amounts up to the total cost of attendance, minus any financial aid received. Exact terms will be announced later this spring, when students will receive more information on the program.

"Almost 20 percent of our students are from abroad, and they add a great deal of intellectual vibrancy and cultural richness throughout the University and our community," said Kimberly Goff-Crews, Vice-President for Campus Life and Dean of Students, in a release on the school's site. "We have focused our attention on finding loan programs that will meet the needs of this important segment of our student body."

For more advice on applying to Chicago Booth, visit the Veritas Prep Chicago Booth information page, or follow us on Twitter!.

New Wharton Loans for International Students

Yesterday Wharton announced a new student loan program for international students that will not require borrowers to have U.S. co-signers. The program, launched in partnership with Digital Federal Credit Union, is the long-awaited replacement that the school has been searching for since Citi canceled its student loan program last October.

This program will cover tuition and living expenses for international students at Wharton. The loan terms are quite attractive given the current lending climate: an interest rate of Prime plus 3% (reduced by 25 basis points if the borrower signs up for an automatic payment plan), plus no origination fee. Wharton will share some of the risk of default with the credit union, which indicates how badly Wharton wanted to make this new loan program happen.

The school's Student Financial Services Office is in the process of reviewing several proposals for new loan programs for domestic students and for international students with U.S.-based co-signers. The school expects to have a list of approved lenders for both federal and private loan programs within the next few weeks.

For more information on applying to and attending Wharton, visit the Veritas Prep Wharton information page at Veritas Prep. Also, be sure to follow us on Twitter!

HBS on International Student Loans

Amid all of the grim news lately regarding the availability of student loans, Dee Leopold posted an update on the HBS admissions blog to let international applicants know that they will still have access to need-based loans without a U.S.-based cosigner.

Writes Leopold:

While at this time we do not have further details about specific loan programs with private lenders, we are able to make this important - and reassuring - statement about continued accessibility.

She went on to say that all students will still be eligible for HBS fellowships, which don't need to be repaid. The average need-based fellowship is about $25,000 per year, making them critical in keeping down HBS students' total costs.

If you're applying to Harvard, visit the Veritas Prep HBS information page for more application advice and resources.

Veritas Prep Featured in The Wall Street Journal

An article in today's Wall Street Journal ("Escape Route: Seeking Refuge in an M.B.A. Program") looked more deeply into the trend of people turning to graduate school as the economy slows. Veritas Prep was mentioned as one of the GMAT prep and admissions consulting firms that has recently seen tremendous growth because of the softening economy and Wall Street turmoil.

While this trend has been covered a great deal lately, this piece raises an interesting question: If more people pursue their MBAs now but the Wall Street landscape looks dramatically different in three years, where will those grads go? According to the article:

But the severity of the financial crisis and the demise and consolidation of financial powerhouses that in previous years have nabbed top talent at schools across the country make this year's flight to business school different. When this year's M.B.A. applicants graduate, they will enter a dramatically different Wall Street and potentially smaller job market that has been altered by the ripple effects of the credit crunch.

"The demand for managing money and the demand for banking skills, that's going to be here," says Stacey Kole, deputy dean for the full-time M.B.A. program at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. But "it may migrate to different firms." Ms. Kole says the school is seeing more boutique firms recruit on campus, as well as employers in other sectors recruiting for finance jobs. "People who may have gone to Wall Street will go to Main Street in a finance role," she says.

Business schools aren't the only ones that may see an increase in application because of the economy. According to the Law School Admission Council, this past June there were 28,939 LSATs administered in June, representing a 15.3% increase from a year ago.

Perhaps most concerning is the effect that the current market may have on student loans. Some lenders (such as Citi) have already suspended loan programs, while others are tightening their lending standards. It remains to be seen how much of an impact this trend will have on the overall graduate school admissions landscape.

If you're just now thinking about applying to business school or law school this year, take a look at Veritas Prep's industry-leading admissions consulting team.