MEFA graduate student loans allow you to choose when you begin repayment. Our low-cost fixed interest rates let you rely on stable and predictable monthly payments for the life of the graduate loan.
Step-up repayment strategy features a lower interest rate while you are in grad school, keeping the monthly payment amount low during grad school.
Repay your loan over 15 years.1
There's no application fee, only a 4.00% origination fee. (The fee is 7.00% without a co-borrower.)
Choose to defer payments until six months after you graduate or leave the program. Maximum deferment is 3 years.
Benefits Massachusetts residents attending grad school in-state or out-of-state, and students from across the U.S. attending a Massachusetts college or university.
Download a Fact Sheet PDF
To be eligible for a MEFA Graduate Loan, you must meet the following requirements:
You (the student) must be enrolled at least half time in an accredited degree-granting graduate program at an eligible non-profit college or university.
You must meet one of the following:
The primary borrower and/or your co-borrower live in Massachusetts OR
The student lives in Massachusetts OR
The student is attending a Massachusetts college or university
You must maintain satisfactory academic progress as defined by your college or university.
Applicants must meet MEFA's current credit approval standards.
All applicants must be either a U.S. citizen or a U.S. permanent resident.
You may request a loan amount up to the total cost of attendance (including tuition, fees, room, board, and miscellaneous expenses) minus other financial aid.
The minimum loan amount is $2,000 ($1,500 minimum at a public college or university.
1. The Interest-Only Payment Option and Deferment Option do not extend the overall repayment period.
2. The Annual Percentage Rate (APR) reflects both the accruing interest and the effect of borrowing the origination fee and paying the expected monthly payment over the term of the loan. APR varies with length of deferral, length of in-school period, and the presence of a co-borrower.
3. Monthly payment amount at the end of the in-school period varies according to the length of the in-school period.
4. The graduate Anticipated In-School Period begins on the initial disbursement date of the loan and ends on the date which is expected, at the time of origination, to be the first anniversary of the final disbursement date of the loan on which the student will have completed his or her current course of study (e.g., for a loan for a first year graduate student, three years from the final disbursement date of the loan), but no later than the third anniversary.
5. Interest payment and principal repayment begin 6 months after the student graduates, leaves the program, is not making satisfactory academic progress as defined by the institution, or reduces his/her hours to less than half-time status while in school.
MEFA reserves the right to modify or terminate benefits, products, services and terms in its sole discretion and without prior notice. MEFA education loan availability is subject to MEFA’s acceptance of a completed loan application, including credit approval and fund availability for the applicable loan category at the proposed disbursement time.
