Graduate Plus Loan is a federal program like the Stafford Loan and Perkinds Loan; provided by the US government for providing expenses for the college education. As the name suggests, only those students who will be or pursuing their post graduate studies can make use of this loan program. The loan is helpful for those students who are having bad credit scores and could not avail the loan. Since this is no credit check loan, you can easily qualify for the loan irrespective of your credit ratings. You can get the money to cover the entire expenses of your college education like tuition fees, fees for your project work, travel expenses etc. The maximum amount that you can get is the total education cost minus the financial aid or grants that you have received.

The features of the Graduate Plus Loan are summarized under the following headings:

• Interest rate charged is 8.5% APR
• You can defer the loan while at school
• No cosigner is required
• Loan gets approved easily
• Low variable interest rate applied
• Easy online application procedure
• No need to pay the loan while at school
• Repayment starts after 6 months after course completion
• You can repay the loan up to 7 years

There is a limit to the money that you can borrow under the Graduate Plus Loan. It should not exceed more than what you required. For example that the education expenses for one year is say $75,000 and you have received scholarships worth $25,000, then you are only eligible to get a loan up to $50,000 and not more than that. Same thing applies to the rest of the years at your college. In order to apply for the loan, you will have to fill the online FAFSA form and submit it to your money lender. The lender would then send the money to your college in one or two installments to pay for the expenses. Alternatively, the money can even be transferred to your bank account from where you can carry out the transactions.

In order to avail the loan, you will have to fulfill certain eligibility criteria. Following are the Graduate Plus Loan Requirements to get your loan sanctioned:

• Age at least 17 years
• Must be a permanent resident of US
• The college must be approved from Dept. of Education
• Must be having a valid bank account

There are 3 options available for Graduate Plus Loan Repayment. The first is the Standard in which you pay a fixed amount on a monthly basis and you clear the loan amount within 10 years. The second is the Standard one in which you start paying very low amount monthly and gradually the payment increases. This option is suited best for individuals who wish to start their own business after completion their studies and want to be financially secured. The last one is the Extended in which you can repay in 25 years. However; only those students who have an outstanding loan of more than $30,000 can opt for this repayment method.

If you wish to apply for more than one loan while you are attending your college, then you will have to sign an MPN. MPN stands for Master Promissory Note and if you wish to apply for multiple loans under the Graduate Plus Loan, you will have to fill in the Graduate Plus Loan Promissory Note. You will have to fill an online application form for this and one you have submitted the application from, the Department of Education would provide you a PIN number. Following is the step by step procedure for the Graduate Plus Loan MPN:

• Get yourself registered to the eMPN
• Consent and disclosure
• Give the details about the college where you are studying now
• Complete the MPN application form
• Give the confirmation code provided by Dept. of Education
• When confirmed, submit the MPN
• You can then print out your MPN