I own a high-end trade school in Texas. The school is only about a year old and not accredited yet, however it will be in about a year. As many of you know, accreditation allows students to use federal loans, grants, etc.

In the meantime, we have relied on our students to either pay privately or borrow using Sallie Mae's career training loans. Sallie Mae is the only lender we have found that will lend to students attending a non-accredited private trade school. The loans require very high credit scores and the IRs are usually 10%+

Many prospective students have spoken with their banks/CUs about borrowing and are immediately dismissed due to the fact that the school is new and not yet accredited. I've done quite a bit of research within our specific industry of training (which I prefer to keep anonymous for personal reasons). I've yet to find any other financial institution that is willing to lend to our students. Has anyone discovered any private lender than is very generous with the type of school they consider acceptable for their student loans? We would be willing to share audited financials to prove financial stability.

This is my first venture into the "student loan forums" of CreditBoards so I apologize if this has already been discussed. I wasn't able to find anything in the archives.

Thanks!!

You really should be networking with other schools and financial aid professionals on this topic.

You are exactly right. I have exhausted all of those traditional resources. No other schools in the country (unless they are really good at hiding them) are aware of any funding alternatives. Financial aid professionals are few and far between and there are many crooks out there preying on struggling schools. I joined creditboards for other reasons than student loan forum, but some of the worlds best kept secrets reside on the message boards of the internet- so I just had to ask.

Nevertheless you are exactly right, the obvious thing to do would be to network with other school owners- if only they had the solution!!

Thanks!