Sallie Mae, the nation’s saving, planning, and paying for college company, today announced new, competitively-priced, graduate student loans for medical and dental professions. Both loans offer fixed and variable rates with no origination fees or pre-payment penalties, plus multiple payment options and enhanced repayment flexibility to cover 100 percent of the school-certified cost of attendance.

The Sallie Mae Medical School Loan is available to graduate students pursing a degree in allopathic, general, osteopathic, podiatric, radiology, sports, and veterinary medicine at degree-granting institutions. The Sallie Mae Medical School Loan offers fixed interest rates ranging from 5.74 percent to 8.36 percent annual percentage rate and variable interest rates ranging from 3.62 percent to 8.36 percent APR.

In addition, the Sallie Mae Medical School Loan offers a 20-year repayment term with enhanced flexibility: students receive a 36-month grace period after graduation — the federal Grad PLUS program only offers 6 months — and an additional 48 months of deferment during residency or fellowship, which is not available through the federal program. Sallie Mae’s Graduated Repayment Period also provides greater budget flexibility by allowing students to make 12 interest-only payments before transitioning into full principal and interest payments.

The Sallie Mae Dental School Loan is available for graduate students pursing dentistry, endodontics, oral and maxillofacial surgery, orthodontics, pediatric dentistry, periodontics, and prosthodontics at a degree-granting institution. Specifically, the Sallie Mae Dental School Loan offers fixed interest rates ranging from 5.75 percent to 8.37 percent APR and variable interest rates ranging from 3.62 percent to 8.37 percent APR.

The Sallie Mae Dental School Loan offers a 20-year repayment term with a 12-month grace period — the federal Grad PLUS program only offers 6 months — and an additional 48 months of deferment during residency or fellowship, which is not available through the federal program. Eligible Sallie Mae Dental School loan customers can also take advantage of the Graduated Repayment Period.

“We know that graduate school continues to be the expectation for many students and families, and our research also found that most plan to borrow to pay for it,” said Kelly Christiano, senior vice president, Sallie Mae. “These students value choice, flexibility, and options tailored for specific programs. We’ve designed our new graduate products to provide just that: competitively priced solutions with benefits, like extended grace and deferment periods that outpace the federal program, and repayment terms that allow students to focus on their studies and transition to their careers.”

Graduate student customers who choose the Sallie Mae Medical School Loan or Sallie Mae Dental School Loan may select to make monthly interest-only or fixed payments while in school; or defer payments until after school. More than half of Sallie Mae’s customers choose to make in-school payments and that responsible choice means lower interest rates. Customers are eligible to receive an interest rate 0.50 percentage points lower when they opt for an in-school interest-only payment over the deferred payment option, and an interest rate 0.25 percentage points lower if they choose an in-school fixed payment over the deferred payment option.

Sallie Mae’s new graduate student loans also offer:

  • Cosigner release: After they graduate, meet certain credit requirements, and make 12 on-time principal and interest payments—the shortest qualification period among private student lenders— customers (primary borrowers) may apply to have their cosigner released from the loan.
  • Rate reduction for auto-debit: Customers can reduce their interest rate by 0.25 percentage points by enrolling in the automatic debit option.
  • Free access to credit scores: Customers, including cosigners, have access to their FICO® Credit Score on a quarterly basis, along with information about factors that affect credit scores and why monitoring credit scores is important.

For more information on Sallie Mae’s graduate student loans, or to apply, visit SallieMae.com.

Sallie Mae (Nasdaq: SLM) is the nation’s saving, planning, and paying for college company. Whether college is a long way off or just around the corner, Sallie Mae offers products that promote responsible personal finance, including private education loans, Upromise rewards, scholarship search, college financial planning tools, and online retail banking. Learn more at SallieMae.com. Commonly known as Sallie Mae, SLM Corporation and its subsidiaries are not sponsored by or agencies of the United States of America.