OU-COM has selected 3 Graduate PLUS lenders for the 2007-08 academic year. However, we will process loans from any lender selected by the student.  Our selection process is described below:

Background:

The loan industry is becoming ever more confusing and competitive offering an array of front and back end borrower benefits that sometimes defy comparison from one lender to another.  In our search for the most competitive lenders, we referenced the January 2007 issue of the Greentree Gazette, the business magazine for Higher Education. In January of each year, the Greentree Gazette publishes an extensive Student Loan Buying Guide. A perennial resource for aid officers, the Buying Guide lists 21 PLUS Stafford loans with discounts which can be located on page 112 of the January 2007 issue. This table provided a foundation to begin our analysis and selection of a PLUS lender list.  The lender list reflects our decisions made as of 2/11/07.

Step 1:

From the Greentree Gazette, we selected the 9 lenders with the lowest possible interest rate during the life of the loan, including both front end and back end benefits. To this list, we added the AAMC Medloan program, the Total Higher Education (T.H.E.) medical loan and Chase. 

Step 2:

We referred to each selected lender's website, made follow-up contacts for clarification, if needed, to determine the terms and conditions of these loans.

Step 3:

We analyzed the data. Please note: The terms and conditions of the Grad PLUS loans are variable enough to make comparisons very difficult to select lenders. It is especially difficult to assess were the variability in back end benefits, which include rebates of origination fees, interest rebates, principal rebates and various time increments which these would activate. In addition, all back ends are dependent on borrower behaviors such as repayment habits, length of repayment, loan amounts etc.

Here are the criteria we used to select the Federal Grad PLUS lenders for 2007-08.

1.  The loan should have the lowest possible fees charged to the borrower. We selected those loans that offered 0% default fees. All lenders charged origination fees. Nine lenders offered to pay the default fee on behalf of the borrower.

2.  We Identified the loans with the lowest interest rate at disbursement. These programs offer a reduction to unsubsidized Stafford loans which accrue interest from the time of disbursement. This is a  benefit the borrower would not need to earn.  The Medloan, Chase and Ed America met this criteria. Note: In addition Medloans was the only lender who offered continuous deferments with no capitalization in residency. 

3.  We chose 3 lenders who met both these criteria. The following lenders met these criteria: AAMC Medloans, Chase and Ed America. These lenders were selected for our lending list with the understanding that we will process any PLUS loan a student requests.