How Interest Rates Work on Federal Student Loans
Interest rates on federal student loans such as the direct unsubsidized and direct PLUS (Grad PLUS) are fixed for the life of the loan, meaning they never change until they are either paid in full or forgiven. However, the rates change on new loans disbursed on or after July 1 of any given year.
This simply means that if you borrow four direct unsubsidized loans for each year of dental school, you will graduate with four loans, each of which has a different, but fixed, interest rate.
Interest rates on federal student loans have risen steadily the past four years, but most financial aid professionals still agree their repayment, postponement, and forgiveness provisions make them a better alternative than private loans for dental students who need to borrow to pay for dental school.
Please remember that responsible borrowing leads to responsible repayment.
About Paul Garrard, M.B.A.:
Paul S. Garrard, M.B.A.
Founder and President
PGPresents, LLC
Independent Student Loan Consulting
ADEA Senior Advisor for Student Financial Service
With more than 35 years of experience in higher education and student financial aid, Paul Garrard is one of the most well-known and in-demand educational debt management experts in the nation, especially in the health professions communities. Mr. Garrard currently serves as a consultant for the American Dental Education Association (ADEA) as their Senior Advisor for Student Financial Services.
He has extensive experience in the nonprofit and for-profit sectors of higher education. In 2008, he started his own consulting firm, PGPresents, LLC, designed to help promote responsible borrowing and responsible repayment.
His specialty is helping health professions graduates, including dental school graduates, manage their student loan portfolios by helping them develop repayment strategies that meet their career and financial goals. He also uses this expertise through ADEA to help inform incoming dental students about borrowing responsibly.
He is a nationally known speaker on financing a dental education and is a regular speaker at the ADEA GoDental Recruitment Event held prior to the ADEA Annual Session & Exhibition.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Samford University and an M.B.A. from the University of Georgia. Mr. Garrard works out of his home in Shepherdstown, WV.