Lender Doubles Loan Limit, Offers Refinancing For International MBA Students

MPOWER hopes its new $100,000 loan limit will remove more barriers for international students pursing education in U.S. and Canadian schools. (Courtesy)

WHY INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS MATTER 

For business schools, international students not only diversify classrooms, but they are customers for what the schools are trying to sell – a world class education. International students are, frankly, critical to a lot of schools’ bottom lines.

“The U.S. is behind in terms of thinking of international students as an import of people as opposed to an export of our educational system. You’re selling a $50,000 to $100,000 tuition, housing, meals, health insurance, etc.,” Smadja says. “There was a study from a few years ago that said for every international student that comes here, you’re subsidizing five to 10 American students.” 

From an economic standpoint, highly-skilled immigrants and international students drive American innovation while helping to ease the U.S. labor shortage. A recent report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, found that there were 10.1 million job openings in June, but only 8.7 million individuals were looking for work.

“There are tons of stats out there about the number of international students or immigrants that are leading the fortune 500 companies, or that are entrepreneurs starting new companies. The CEOs of Microsoft, Google, and Tesla are all international students,” Smadja says. “They’re coming here, they’re leading companies, they’re creating new companies, and they’re adding a ton of value to the American economy.”

A HAPPY ENDING

Gomes ultimately secured another loan shortly before the start of Marshall’s IBEAR MBA in June – an accelerated, full-time MBA that lasts an intense, jam-packed 12 months. This week, in between exams and ferrying his daughter to school, Gomes took the time to jump on the phone with Poets&Quants

Gomes discovered his own loan limit with MPOWER was raised after MPOWER’s announcement, and he plans to try its refi option once he graduates and begins work in the U.S. He’s hoping to work in investment banking.

The moves are “crucial for international students because we don’t have access to American loans, or even private loans,” he says. “I would not have been able to do an MBA without loans because I didn’t have all the money to pay and stay one year without working.”

“It was very good” to hear about MPOWER’s announcements, and it came at a “very good time. I needed $16,000 more and I will get that through MPOWER now. So it was very useful for me.”

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