In Indiana, the average balance for federal and private student loan borrowers is $30,661, 16% less than the national average of $36,689 and one of the country’s lowest averages. However, the median household income in Indiana — $56,303 — is 18% less than the national median of $68,703, so managing student loan payments may be more challenging.
To offset college costs and reduce the need for student loans, Indiana offers many grants and scholarships, as well as a state work-study program. However, 900,000 Hoosier State graduates still leave school with student loan debt.
Here’s what you should know about student loans in Indiana and repayment and forgiveness programs within the state.
Student loans in Indiana: Borrowers owe average of $30,661 in federal, private debt — and more facts
Opting for a public university over a private school could be an excellent way to reduce your college expenses. There are 16 public community colleges and universities in Indiana, including well-known schools like Indiana University, Purdue University and Ball State University.
The state operates several financial aid programs, including:
- Adult Student Grant: Adults starting or completing an associate degree, bachelor’s degree or certificate program can qualify for up to $2,000. The Adult Student Grant is awarded based on financial need.
- EARN Indiana: EARN Indiana is the state work-study program. This initiative allows undergraduate students with financial need access to paid internships. Employers receive matching funds — 50% of the student’s hourly rate — for hiring students.
- Frank O’Bannon Grant: Awarded based on students’ Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) information, the Frank O’Bannon Grant can be used to pay for tuition at public and private schools.
- Next Level Jobs Workforce Ready Grant: The Next Level Jobs Workforce Ready Grant covers the cost of tuition and mandatory fees for students who will complete certain certificate programs at Ivy Tech Community College, Vincennes University, the Indiana Institute of Technology or other approved schools. To qualify, the student must participate in a certificate program in the following subjects: Advanced manufacturing, building and construction, health sciences, information technology and business services or transportation and logistics.
Students ineligible for state grants, scholarships or work-study programs will likely need to use federal or private student loans to cover their education costs.
Student loan debt in Indiana’s largest counties, from Allen to Marion
Student loan debt by ZIP code in Indiana’s largest city: Indianapolis
Loan repayment programs for Indiana residents
If you qualify for one of Indiana’s student loan repayment assistance programs, you can reduce how much of your student loans you have to repay yourself and save money for your other financial goals. Here are a few federal and state programs available for Indiana student loans.
Income-driven repayment (IDR) loan forgiveness
If you have federal student loans, you can enroll in an IDR plan to potentially reduce your monthly payments. The loan servicer will extend your repayment term to 20 to 25 years and your new monthly payment is calculated based on your discretionary income and family size.
If you still have a balance after the loan term expires, the government will forgive the remaining amount. But while IDR forgiveness can be substantial, keep in mind that the amount forgiven may be taxable under IRS rules.
Indiana Health Care Professional Recruitment and Retention Fund Program (IHCPRRF)
The IHCPRRF provides student loan repayment assistance for health care professionals who agree to work in health care shortage areas, particularly for psychiatrists and alcohol and substance abuse counselors who work at approved sites. Qualified professionals can receive up to $20,000 to help repay their student loans.
Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF)
Federal student loan borrowers who work for nonprofit organizations or the government may qualify for PSLF. Under this program, your loan balance is forgiven after working full time for an eligible employer while making the required 120 qualifying monthly payments (equivalent to 10 years of qualifying payments).
Richard M. Givan Loan Repayment Assistance Program
The Indiana Bar Foundation operates the Richard M. Givan Loan Repayment Assistance Program, a statewide loan assistance program. This program provides aid to law school graduates working for nonprofit legal organizations that service lower-income individuals in Indiana. Qualified recipients can receive up to $5,000 per year in loan repayment assistance.
Teacher Loan Forgiveness Program
If you’re a teacher and have federal student loans, you may be eligible for the Teacher Loan Forgiveness Program. With this forgiveness program, you can qualify for up to $17,500 in repayment assistance if you teach full time for five years in a low-income school or educational services agency.
Indiana federal student loan borrowers younger than 25 owe less than national average — and more comparisons
How to refinance student loans in Indiana
In Indiana, 5.6% of student loan borrowers owe $100,000 or more. With a high loan balance, student loan refinancing can be beneficial, allowing you to save money, reduce your monthly payment or pay off your loans faster.
When you refinance, you consolidate your existing federal and private loans with a new loan from a private lender. The new loan has different terms, including the interest rate and monthly payment, and you’ll have just one loan to manage going forward.
Banks, credit unions and online lenders offer student loan refinancing.
In Indiana, one lender is INvestEd, a nonprofit organization based in the state. With INvestEd, you can refinance between $5,000 and $250,000, and you’ll have up to 20 years to repay your loan. INvestEd offers both variable and fixed interest rates, so you can choose the interest rate type that best suits your goals.
However, while refinancing can be a useful tool for managing your debt, there are downsides to keep in mind. When you refinance federal loans, you transfer them over to a private lender. As such, you’ll lose federal loan benefits like access to forgiveness programs and forbearance or deferment.
Some refinancing lenders offer financial hardship programs and allow you to defer your payments, but they differ from federal forbearance and deferment programs and are typically much shorter in duration.
Sources
- U.S. Department of Education data as of June 30, 2020
- Anonymized My LendingTree June 2020 credit reports
- Federal Reserve Bank of New York Consumer Credit Panel/Equifax as of June 2020
- mappingstudentdebt.org
Because the latter data is from 2015, researchers estimated the increase in student loan debt per borrower in the state using statewide data from anonymized credit reports.
Interested in refinancing student loans?
Here are the top 6 lenders of 2021!| Lender | Variable APR | Eligible Degrees | |
|---|---|---|---|
 | 1.89% – 5.99%1 | Undergrad & Graduate | |
 | 1.99% – 5.64%2 | Undergrad & Graduate | |
 | 1.99% – 6.84%3 | Undergrad & Graduate | |
 | 2.25% – 6.88%4 | Undergrad & Graduate | |
 | 1.91% – 5.25%5 | Undergrad & Graduate | |
 | 1.89% – 5.90%6 | Undergrad & Graduate | |
| Check out the testimonials and our in-depth reviews! 1 Important Disclosures for Splash Financial. Splash Financial DisclosuresTerms and Conditions apply. Splash reserves the right to modify or discontinue products and benefits at any time without notice. Rates and terms are also subject to change at any time without notice. Offers are subject to credit approval. To qualify, a borrower must be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident in an eligible state and meet applicable underwriting requirements. Not all borrowers receive the lowest rate. Lowest rates are reserved for the highest qualified borrowers. If approved, your actual rate will be within a range of rates and will depend on a variety of factors, including term of loan, a responsible financial history, income and other factors. Refinancing or consolidating private and federal student loans may not be the right decision for everyone. Federal loans carry special benefits not available for loans made through Splash Financial, for example, public service loan forgiveness and economic hardship programs, fee waivers and rebates on the principal, which may not be accessible to you after you refinance. The rates displayed may include a 0.25% autopay discount. The information you provide to us is an inquiry to determine whether we or our lenders can make a loan offer that meets your needs. If we or any of our lending partners has an available loan offer for you, you will be invited to submit a loan application to the lender for its review. We do not guarantee that you will receive any loan offers or that your loan application will be approved. Offers are subject to credit approval and are available only to U.S. citizens or permanent residents who meet applicable underwriting requirements. Not all borrowers will receive the lowest rates, which are available to the most qualified borrowers. Participating lenders, rates and terms are subject to change at any time without notice. To check the rates and terms you qualify for, Splash Financial conducts a soft credit pull that will not affect your credit score. However, if you choose a product and continue your application, the lender will request your full credit report from one or more consumer reporting agencies, which is considered a hard credit pull and may affect your credit. Splash Financial and our lending partners reserve the right to modify or discontinue products and benefits at any time without notice. To qualify, a borrower must be a U.S. citizen and meet our lending partner’s underwriting requirements. Lowest rates are reserved for the highest qualified borrowers. This information is current as of Feburary 1, 2021. 2 Important Disclosures for Earnest. Earnest DisclosuresTo qualify, you must be a U.S. citizen or possess a 10-year (non-conditional) Permanent Resident Card, reside in a state Earnest lends in, and satisfy our minimum eligibility criteria. You may find more information on loan eligibility here: https://www.earnest.com/eligibility. Not all applicants will be approved for a loan, and not all applicants will qualify for the lowest rate. Approval and interest rate depend on the review of a complete application. Earnest fixed rate loan rates range from 2.98% APR (with Auto Pay) to 5.49% APR (with Auto Pay). Variable rate loan rates range from 1.99% APR (with Auto Pay) to 5.34% APR (with Auto Pay). For variable rate loans, although the interest rate will vary after you are approved, the interest rate will never exceed 8.95% for loan terms 10 years or less. For loan terms of 10 years to 15 years, the interest rate will never exceed 9.95%. For loan terms over 15 years, the interest rate will never exceed 11.95% (the maximum rates for these loans). Earnest variable interest rate loans are based on a publicly available index, the one month London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR). Your rate will be calculated each month by adding a margin between 1.82% and 5.50% to the one month LIBOR. The rate will not increase more than once per month. Earnest rate ranges are current as of October 26, 2020, and are subject to change based on market conditions and borrower eligibility. Auto Pay discount: If you make monthly principal and interest payments by an automatic, monthly deduction from a savings or checking account, your rate will be reduced by one quarter of one percent (0.25%) for so long as you continue to make automatic, electronic monthly payments. This benefit is suspended during periods of deferment and forbearance. The information provided on this page is updated as of 10/26/2020. Earnest reserves the right to change, pause, or terminate product offerings at any time without notice. Earnest loans are originated by Earnest Operations LLC. California Finance Lender License 6054788. NMLS # 1204917. Earnest Operations LLC is located at 302 2nd Street, Suite 401N, San Francisco, CA 94107. Terms and Conditions apply. Visit https://www.earnest.com/terms-of-service, email us at [email protected], or call 888-601-2801 for more information on our student loan refinance product. © 2020 Earnest LLC. All rights reserved. Earnest LLC and its subsidiaries, including Earnest Operations LLC, are not sponsored by or agencies of the United States of America. 3 Important Disclosures for CommonBond. CommonBond DisclosuresOffered terms are subject to change and state law restriction. Loans are offered by CommonBond Lending, LLC (NMLS # 1175900), NMLS Consumer Access. If you are approved for a loan, the interest rate offered will depend on your credit profile, your application, the loan term selected and will be within the ranges of rates shown. All Annual Percentage Rates (APRs) displayed assume borrowers enroll in auto pay and account for the 0.25% reduction in interest rate. All variable rates are based on a 1-month LIBOR assumption of 0.15% effective Jan 1, 2021 and may increase after consummation. 4 Important Disclosures for SoFi. SoFi Disclosures
5 Important Disclosures for LendKey. LendKey DisclosuresRefinancing via LendKey.com is only available for applicants with qualified private education loans from an eligible institution. Loans that were used for exam preparation classes, including, but not limited to, loans for LSAT, MCAT, GMAT, and GRE preparation, are not eligible for refinancing with a lender via LendKey.com. If you currently have any of these exam preparation loans, you should not include them in an application to refinance your student loans on this website. Applicants must be either U.S. citizens or Permanent Residents in an eligible state to qualify for a loan. Certain membership requirements (including the opening of a share account and any applicable association fees in connection with membership) may apply in the event that an applicant wishes to accept a loan offer from a credit union lender. Lenders participating on LendKey.com reserve the right to modify or discontinue the products, terms, and benefits offered on this website at any time without notice. LendKey Technologies, Inc. is not affiliated with, nor does it endorse, any educational institution. Subject to floor rate and may require the automatic payments be made from a checking or savings account with the lender. The rate reduction will be removed and the rate will be increased by 0.25% upon any cancellation or failed collection attempt of the automatic payment and will be suspended during any period of deferment or forbearance. As a result, during the forbearance or suspension period, and/or if the automatic payment is canceled, any increase will take the form of higher payments. The lowest advertised variable APR is only available for loan terms of 5 years and is reserved for applicants with FICO scores of at least 810. As of 02/17/2021 student loan refinancing rates range from 1.91% APR – 5.25% Variable APR with AutoPay and 2.95% APR – 7.63% Fixed APR with AutoPay. 6 Important Disclosures for Laurel Road. Laurel Road DisclosuresAll credit products are subject to credit approval. Laurel Road began originating student loans in 2013 and has since helped thousands of professionals with undergraduate and postgraduate degrees consolidate and refinance more than $4 billion in federal and private school loans. Laurel Road also offers a suite of online graduate school loan products and personal loans that help simplify lending through customized technology and personalized service. In April 2019, Laurel Road was acquired by KeyBank, one of the nation’s largest bank-based financial services companies. Laurel Road is a brand of KeyBank National Association offering online lending products in all 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. All loans are provided by KeyBank National Association, a nationally chartered bank. Member FDIC. For more information, visit www.laurelroad.com. As used throughout these Terms & Conditions, the term “Lender” refers to KeyBank National Association and its affiliates, agents, guaranty insurers, investors, assigns, and successors in interest.
Assumptions: Repayment examples above assume a loan amount of $10,000 with repayment beginning immediately following disbursement. Repayment examples do not include the 0.25% AutoPay Discount. Annual Percentage Rate (“APR”): This term represents the actual cost of financing to the borrower over the life of the loan expressed as a yearly rate. Interest Rate: A simple annual rate that is applied to an unpaid balance. Variable Rates: The current index for variable rate loans is derived from the one-month London Interbank Offered Rate (“LIBOR”) and changes in the LIBOR index may cause your monthly payment to increase. Borrowers who take out a term of 5, 7, or 10 years will have a maximum interest rate of 9%, those who take out a 15 or 20-year variable loan will have a maximum interest rate of 10%. KEYBANK NATIONAL ASSOCIATION RESERVES THE RIGHT TO MODIFY OR DISCONTINUE PRODUCTS AND BENEFITS AT ANY TIME WITHOUT NOTICE. This information is current as of January 4, 2021. Information and rates are subject to change without notice. | |||
