Deferring payments for school or internship

What is student loan deferment?

Deferring payments lets you reduce or postpone your payments. When you request a deferment of a Sallie Mae undergraduate student loan, you won’t have to make principal and interest payments while you’re in school or during your internship, law clerkship, fellowship, or residency.

If your request is approved, your Sallie Mae loan(s) will return to the repayment option you initially chose (i.e., interest, fixed, or deferred). That means if you were paying either interest-only or fixed payments when you were in school, you’ll continue to make those throughout your deferment period.

When you defer, interest will continue to accrue (grow) while you’re in school or in an internship, law clerkship, fellowship, or residency program, which will increase your Total Loan Cost, and you may end up paying more for your loan overall. Any extra interest payments you can make while you’re in deferment can help lower the Total Loan Cost.

Deferring your loans while returning to college or going to graduate school

With this type of deferment, there are some things to consider:

• You can request a deferment of up to 48 months for a Smart Option Student Loan® or a Sallie Mae graduate student loan so long as you’re enrolled at least half-time. 
• To request a deferment for college or graduate school, you will need your school to verify your enrollment. 
  • If your school is listed at studentclearinghouse.org, they’ll automatically verify it electronically. If they aren’t listed, or you don’t want to wait for the automatic update, you’ll need to request the deferment period yourself by submitting this In-School Deferment Request Form to us.
• Be sure to continue making your payments until we let you know if your deferment request is approved. 
• You can ask to have the deferment period removed at any time if you want to return to making principal and interest payments.

Deferring your loans for an internship, law clerkship, fellowship, or residency

With this type of deferment, there are some things to consider:

• You can apply for this type of deferment in increments of up to 12 months, up to a maximum of 60 months for Smart Option Student Loans and up to a maximum of 48 months for the Sallie Mae Medical School Loan, Sallie Mae Dental School Loan, Sallie Mae Health Professions Graduate Loan, Sallie Mae Law School Loan, and the Sallie Mae Graduate School Loan.
• To be considered for deferment, the program you’re enrolled in must:
  • Require you to have a bachelor’s degree as a prerequisite for acceptance.

  OR

  • Be a supervised training program that leads to a degree or certificate OR is required for the student to be certified for professional practice or service.
• Approval of your internship, law clerkship, fellowship, or residency program deferment request is solely at the discretion of Sallie Mae.
• To request a deferment, download an Internship, Law Clerkship, Fellowship, or Residency Deferment Form. You and an official from your internship, law clerkship, fellowship, or residency program must complete the form before submitting it to us.
• Be sure to continue making your payments until we let you know if your deferment request has been approved.
• You can re-request a deferment of your student loan every 12 months until you hit your maximum allowed months of deferment.
• You can ask to have the deferment removed at any time if you want to return to making principal and interest payments.