Banks offer loans up to Rs. 40 Lakhs for IIM Admission

Is it easy to get an education loan for IIM admissions?

I can answer this question from different perspectives. My mother works at State Bank of India, so when my loan was sanctioned, I actually saw what criteria were used to calculate the repayment terms.

Every bank provides a separate class of loans for higher education (mostly MBA). SBI calls it the Scholar Loan Scheme. There are around 114 institutions that are eligible for this loan. They are further classified into List A (53) and List B (61) - List A has better terms of loans - all the top IIMs and IITs are a part of this list.

The moment you get a confirmation e-mail from an IIM, your contact details are shared with the different banks for this loan. Soon after your result, you start getting calls from the banks with their loan offers. I received calls from 5 banks including the bank which was available on campus - SBI.

Not only that, but you also receive a pamphlet by post from the bank (IIM Ahmedabad sent us a folder including important documents and these):

The loan details are mentioned in these pamphlets and you can easily get in touch with the bank staff to get it sanctioned in no time. Your offer letter from the IIM acts as a basis for the loan.

If you choose to take the loan from the bank on campus, the process of disbursement becomes easier. Every term, when the fee is notified to us, there is an online form floated by SBI for the students who’ve taken a loan from the branch on campus. All they’re supposed to do is fill it. That’s it.

For the students who’ve taken a loan from banks outside, all they need to do is send out an e-mail asking the bank to disburse the term fee as notified by the IIM. The bank officials will take care of the rest.

For the students, who have their parents working in one of the banks, there can be some other schemes (for example, I’m availing the offer for the kids of bank employees given by SBI to my mother). In such cases, the interest rate can be lower and the terms of repayment can be different.

Most banks offer a loan up to Rs. 30 Lakhs to cover for expenses beyond the fee. The exchange fee can also be accommodated in the loan if you plan to go on exchange. SBI offered a loan of up to Rs. 40 Lakhs.

The repayment is within 15 years. This doesn’t take into account the study years. This means that you need not repay the principal amount while you’re studying. It is only after graduation, once you start earning that the repayment begins.

Most of the batch takes study loans irrespective of whether they can afford the program themselves or not. It makes more sense. Before joining, students often worry if they’ll be able to repay their loans. But, based on the conversations that we’ve had on campus with our alums, it is clear that almost everyone is able to.

Apart from the packages that you get after IIM, there are other ways to repay your loan. Two of them include the various scholarships that are offered at IIMs (based on performance) and the corporate case study competitions, which offer lakhs of rupees as the cash prize.

So, both getting the loan sanctioned and repaying it are not that difficult.

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If you wish to get into an IIM, you may also like to read:

• Can an average student make it to IIMs?

• How to boost your CV to get into an IIM?

• How is the first year at IIM-A?