Borrowers
Are You an Eligible Borrower?
To be eligible for the SEF program loans you must be an Illinois resident attending an Illinois non-profit, or not-for-profit institution. Please find the list of eligible institutions here.
The Student Empowerment Fund hopes to provide low-interest loans to all Illinois residents, especially those who have struggled to qualify for traditional loans. We are actively seeking partnerships with lenders and institutions to partner on a program that will increase access to student loans for all Illinois residents, specifically those who lack a co-signer or the credit score necessary to qualify for a traditional loan.
To launch the program, SEF has partnered with ISL Education Lending to deliver a low-interest student loan program to borrowers who meet certain credit or co-signer criteria.
As SEF scales, the program will partner with a variety of reputable lenders with different requirements to ensure Illinois residents with varied lending needs have access to higher education.
Illinois Partnership Loan
The Illinois Partnership Loan is the product empowered by the partnership between the STO and ISL Education Lending (ISL). ISL is a nonprofit education lending organization with a spotless record and strong student borrower protections. The STO will provide low-cost capital to ISL to provide low-interest rate loans to Illinois residents attending Illinois institutions of higher education.
The Illinois Partnership Loan program offers loans with no fees, flexible in-school payment options, and an interest rate cap at 7%. The Illinois Partnership Loan will be offered to all Illinois residents attending a not-for-profit Illinois institution.
Borrowers with a FICO score of 660, or who have a qualified co-signer, can apply for loans at ISL through the Illinois Partnership Loan.
Please fill out the following inquiry form if you are interested in partnering with the Student Empowerment Fund on a loan offering.
When you are taking out a student loan you are not only promising to pay back the loan amount, but also all the interest that comes with it. The true cost of taking out a student loan includes the loan amount + the interest paid. The higher your interest payments, and the longer it you take to pay off your loans, the more it costs to pay back your loans.
Through the SEF program, we partner with trusted lenders to deliver low interest student loans with the goal of keeping your true cost of education down. Our residents should be able to focus on their studies, without having to worry about their future.