Prodigy Finance has launched a new loan scheme for international students who are doing their MBA in the US.
The loans will be available for international students at 15 business schools, including the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business, Harvard Business School, and MIT Sloan School of Management, among others. (See a complete list of business schools below.)
The loans are capped at the cost of tuition, and can only be used for tuition. Foreign full-time MBA students are eligible to apply, while US citizens and permanent residents are ineligible.
Many banks don't lend to students who are studying internationally. To fill this need, Prodigy Finance uses a "community finance" model, by which alumni help fund loans that are intended for current students. Loan recipients pay interest of between 6 and 12 percent, depending on their profile and current Libor rates, which means that the alumni providing the money receive a return on their investment. Terms vary by business school.
Since launching in 2007, Prodigy Finance has distributed around $50 million to some 1,300 students. It provides loan schemes to students doing their MBAs at business schools all over the world, including Germany's ESMT, France's HEC Paris, Singapore's NUS Business School, and the UK's Oxford University Said Business Schools, among others.
In the US pilot program, loans are available for international students doing their MBAs at the following business schools:
- Carnegie Mellon University - Tepper School of Business
- Cornell University - Johnson Graduate School of Management
- Dartmouth College – Tuck School of Business
- Georgetown University - McDonough School of Business
- Harvard Business School
- MIT - Sloan School of Management
- New York University - Stern School of Business
- Northwestern University - Kellogg School of Management
- UCLA - Anderson School of Management
- UNC - Chapel Hill - Kenan-Flagler Business School
- University of Chicago - Booth School of Business
- University of Virginia - Darden School of Business
- University of California - Berkeley Haas School of Business
- Duke University - Fuqua School of Business
- University of Pennsylvania - Wharton School
In addition to these US schools, loans are also available for international students attending Columbia Business School and Michigan University's Ross School of Business.
For more information, please see Prodigy Finance's USA Business School Pilot Program webpage.
Photo: 401(K) 2012 / Creative Commons (cropped, rotated)
