Smart Option Student Loan^®
for Undergraduate Students

Private student loans are credit-based, which means we will check your credit when you submit your application. Students are nearly 4 times more likely to be approved with a cosigner since many students haven’t had time to build up their own credit. A cosigner is someone who shares responsibility with you for paying back the loan and is often a parent, but can be any creditworthy adult.

Students can apply just once a year with a single credit check and funds are sent for each term directly to your school. You can cancel future disbursements as needed with no penalty. No additional interest is charged until money is sent to your school, so you can relax, knowing you've got the funds when you need them.

It takes about 15 minutes to apply and get a credit decision. After you’re approved, you choose your undergraduate student loan options, accept your loan disclosure, and the loan is certified by your school. We send (disburse) the funds directly to the school. The process can take as few as 10 business days from application to disbursement.

Whether you study online or on campus, you can borrow to cover the costs at a degree-granting institution, even if you're not a full- or half-time student. The loan's flexibility makes it a good choice for many situations:

• Attending school full-time, half-time, or less than half-time
• Online or on-campus classes
• Winter or summer classes
• Study abroad
• Professional certification courses
• A U.S. citizen or permanent resident enrolled in a school in a foreign country
• A non-U.S. citizen student, including DACA students, residing in and attending school in the U.S. (with a cosigner who is a U.S. citizen or U.S. permanent resident)

Parents can help their students pay for college in two ways: they can cosign a Smart Option Student Loan or take out a Sallie Mae Parent Loan in their own name. These are separate loans with different features and interest rates, so parents should compare their loan options.

With the Smart Option Student Loan, you can select from three repayment options—you can choose to make payments while in school with monthly interest payments or with fixed $25 payments, or you can choose to defer payments until after school. No matter which option you choose, you have six months after you leave school (your grace period) before you begin to make principal and interest payments.

When you apply, we look at your history of borrowing money and paying it back on time. Lenders want to know how creditworthy, or responsible, you are with credit, before approving your student loan application.

Many college-bound high school students haven’t had time to build up their own credit. That’s why they apply with a cosigner, a creditworthy adult who shares the responsibility of the student loan.

You and your cosigner will want to have your social security number, school information, amount needed (remember, you can use it to pay for school-certified expenses for the entire year) as well as your financial and employment information. You or your cosigner may start the application, however should your cosigner not be with you, we can send along an email with a link to their section of the application so they can fill it in later.