Emory University’s Goizueta Business School is pleased to announce that it is finalizing an agreement with an external partner which will provide loans to admitted and current international MBA students.  International MBA students enrolled at Goizueta Business School will be able to borrow for their MBA studies with a competitive interest rate and repayment terms.  A U.S. cosigner will not be required for this new loan program.  Specific details of the loan program structure will be available in the coming weeks after the agreement is finalized.

As highlighted here, I was now very nervous. But this news came in just at the right time. I would still wait before I start the celebrations. The terms and conditions are yet to be announced. But I am sure that there would be nothing prohibitive for the international students. I just hope that they decide to cover the expenses upto the costs of attendance.

As an admitted international MBA candidate, we know that you may need a loan to finance your MBA education.  Like other top-tier MBA Programs, Goizueta Business School is actively exploring loan programs for international students that may not require a U.S. citizen co-signer.  As soon as we have additional information about these programs, we will contact you immediately via email.  In addition, we will post any updates on our admitted student website.

The first time I saw this message on the Goizueta Accepted students website, I found it quite reassuring. But now, it has been over 2 months that I am seeing the same message. And now I am very much worried. As stated earlier too, I do not have any US-based cosigner. And I had shortlisted my schools keeping this criterion in mind. But the recession has chaged everything. 

There was a ray of hope when there was this news about GMAC coming up with a loan program  for international students at 40+ schools from US and Europe. I had even confirmed from Emory adcom that the school is on the loan program list and talks were on with the GMAC guys. But since then, there has been no updates on the issue.

In last few weeks, many schools have come up with some program for internationals. Booth, Darden, Yale and Wharton have already confirmed. Some more like Fuqua have assured that they’ll come up with something. I hope Goizueta comes up with something soon. 

I understand that in worst case, the school will be ready to give me a deferral. But am I prepared to wait for another year? Naah!! EVen the thought is scary. Now that I am already in the B-school mode (I should rather say non-techie mode), I feel like quitting my job today.  If it were not for a few extra bucks, which I desperately need anda few extra moments, which I want to spend with my friends at workplace, I would perhaps have already left. But no, I am not in a condition to go for coding and debugging for an extra year. 

So dear Goizueta, please come up with something for your international students. Joining you has been a dream, it would really pinch if it slips away after being so close.

I had started my journey with just ISB,Hyderabad as my only aim.. Gradually I opened up to NUS. Next in were middle-tier US-schools, which were a bit affordable in terms of living expenses and chances of scholarship.. But as I delved deeper into the B-school research, I almost fell in love with the MBA programs that top US universities offer.. And to make my dreams true, I got to know that all top universities offer you a loan without any co-cosigner !!
“Check your pocket and the loan conditions before you apply”, advised the gurus.. But from my latest experiences, I’d refine that to  ”Check your pocket and the loan conditions even before you start researching a program.” In case, you’e very sure that you can’t get somebody to co-sign your loan, this is the first thing that you should look for, else it can be quite annoying if you get to know about it after you’ve decided that it’s a school that you’d love to atend.

Tepper gave me my first heart-break in this regard.. Last year, when I was still contemplating about apping for Fall’08, I had set my eyes on Tepper.. I loved their General Mgmt program and vistas that are open for you in the tech-industry once you graduate from there.. I had even sent them my GMAT score..(though that was mostly w/o research, just went by the CMU brand name at that time). Later got to know that Tepper strictly needs a cosigner or a credit history in US before provide loans to international students. Talked to a current student and she confirmed the same.. Had done some of my research by then and it really pinched to drop it off my list.. 

A similar thing occured with Haas last week.. Before I started researching on Haas, I had made sure that the school does provide loans to international students w/o a cosigner .. What I missed out was that the maximum amount one can borrow is limited to the cost of tuition minus any scholarships that you get, which means even if i manage to get in with a decent schol, I’d need to bear the cost of living. And for Haas, that comes to be in order of  a whopping INR 17 Lakhs for 2 years!!
So had to drop Haas too!! 

After this, I decided to follow the mantra listed above.. Instead of delving into details of specialization, available career choices, city, class-size, chanes of getting in etc, I started exploring the availability of no-cosigner loans at all the colleges that I had still not struck off my list.. Of course, I’d be applying the other filters later, but no use exploring a school which you can’t afford.. RIght??

 The funda here is simple:: Any school that needs a cosigner for any loan is surely a no-go for me. Any school that offers a no cosigner-loan upto cost of attendance remains on my list. (to be checked for rest of the details). And what about schools offering a no-cosigner loan upto costs of tuition?? Well, these are something I need to check.. Will depend on the city and the expenses involved and whether I can afford the same..

So here goes a first level round up of whatever I discovered over last 48 hours:

• No cosigner loan upto full cost of attendance::Stanford,Ross,Tuck,Duke,Emory,Yale.
• No cosigner loan upto full cost of tuition::Haas, Kenan-Flagler,Kelley.
• Need a cosigner :: Tepper, UCLA Anderson, Mccombs, Fisher, Marshal.

I know a number of names are missing from this list.. Those are either the schools that I had already dropped off my list for some other reasons or the ones that I’ve not started researching yet or those for which I cud locate a clear statement on the issue on their site.

Hope this list is useful to others too..  Just adding the customary disclaimer:: Though I’ve taken care to cross-check things from my personal record-sheet before posting it here, still I’d advise everyone to do his/her own research before taking a decision.. (Also do let me know if you locate any discrepancy in the data above.)

BTW, I do feel that this was just the right time i discovered this. I was in process of pruning the list of my target schools and as you can see above the first level pruning is done for me by just applying the no-cosigner filter.
So coming up next:: the list of the schools I”d be apping to. (Have already delayed it by 3 weeks. )