Is an MBA Student Loan Refinance Right for Me? Rates, Tips, Alternatives

By Victoria Holliday | Published on October 21, 2025

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If you’re in an MBA program (Master of Business Administration) or you’re a recent business school grad, you may be wondering how to get ahead of your loan repayment¹. Refinancing your student loans could save you money and help you pay off graduate student loans more quickly².

While an MBA can increase your salary it is also a costly educational expense which can range upwards of $80,000 for tuition alone.

There are loan forgiveness programs available through the federal government but depending on your situation it could make sense to refinance your loans. For example, if you have private student loans, you don’t qualify for any federal forgiveness programs.

Earnest refinancing offers some of the most flexible terms and you can pick your payment. Let’s go over everything you need to know about refinancing your graduate school loans.

What is student loan refinancing?

Student loan refinancing is when borrowers take out a new loan to pay back their existing student loan debt at a lower interest rate. Ideally, the new loan will have a lower interest rate and interest will accrue more slowly allowing you to pay off your principal balance faster (depending on your repayment terms). You can refinance federal student loans or private student loans.

Student loan refinancing vs student loan consolidation

Loan refinancing and loan consolidation are both options which help borrowers manage student debt. MBA student loan refinancing is always done through a private lender. Student loan consolidation is a way for you to bundle all of your existing federal student loan payments under the same loan servicer without having to refinance. You’ll get a new interest rate calculated based on a weighted average of your existing interest rates, rounded up to the nearest eighth of a percent.

While consolidating your loans won’t save you money on interest rates over the life of the loans, it can be a good solution for people who want to simplify their student loan bills even if they have a low credit score. Borrowers don’t need to show proof of good credit to consolidate their federal student loans; there’s no credit check and no hit on your credit history.

Should you refinance your MBA loans?

According to NerdWallet, the average MBA student has a loan balance of about $75,000 upon graduation. Your decision to refinance your MBA loans will depend on a couple of factors like your eligibility, current interest rate, and your monthly payment.

Refinancing with Earnest offers MBA grads a chance to lower their monthly payments. We don’t charge origination fees, penalties for prepayment (when you pay off your loan balance in full before the end of your loan term), or late payment fees, so you can also reduce your total cost by paying more than the minimum each month.

Important things to know when considering an MBA student loan refinance

While refinancing your student loans can potentially save you a lot of money over time, it’s not the best choice for everyone. Here’s what you need to know about the federal student loan benefits you’ll lose access to by refinancing, and why you might want to wait if you have a low credit score.

You’ll lose access to federal protections

The federal government has recently announced changes to income-driven repayment programs. These changes will make it easier for federal borrowers to lower monthly student loan repayment bills and streamline the application process for loan forgiveness programs, as well as reduce interest accrual. If you refinance through a private lender, you will lose access to federal protections that can help you avoid increasing your debt while you’re unable to pay, such as income-driven repayment plans.

If you have federal loans and you find it challenging to pay them, you can apply for an income-driven repayment plan*. These plans compare your income, dependents, and financial responsibilities with the amount you’re required to pay on your loans, and can restructure your payment plan to reduce your monthly bills until you’re making more money.

*As a result of ongoing court actions, the terms of some Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) plans, including the SAVE plan, may be subject to change. Please refer to studentaid.gov for the current status of these plans.

The SAVE Plan** is the newest income-driven repayment plan, and under this plan, millions of borrowers qualify for $0 monthly payments. You can find a tool to calculate what your reduced payments might look like under different plans from StudentAid.gov.

**A federal court has issued a stay preventing the U.S. Department of Education (ED) from operating the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan. Please refer to studentaid.gov for the current status.

The federal government also offers options for deferment and forbearance, which can give you time to address other urgent financial matters without needing to make payments on your loans (though interest may still accrue). And these may not be offered by your private lender. Before refinancing, you should be as certain as possible that your new loan terms are affordable to you, and that you’re not likely to find yourself in a situation where you can’t pay.

You’ll lose access to federal loan forgiveness programs

Refinancing your loans with a private lender also means you lose access to any current or future federal student loan forgiveness programs. If you work in a qualifying job, you may be eligible for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which cancels your remaining debt after 10 years of on-time payments that meet the program requirements. Though parent loans have different rules, this program may also forgive Parent PLUS loans taken out on your behalf if you’ve previously consolidated them with your Direct loans and taken over responsibility for them.

However, the only thing that can lower your loan interest rates from the federal government is signing up for automatic payments through your loan servicer—the autopay discount will knock .25% off your rate while you’re enrolled. It’s something, but refinancing can potentially lower your rates much further.

You need a high credit score to get a low refinancing rate

Lower interest rates are tied to excellent credit. If you refinance when your credit score is lower, you may not save as much money and may need to refinance again in the future when your credit score is stronger in order to maximize your savings.

How to get the best MBA student loan refinancing rates

If you’ve decided refinancing is the best option for you, you’ll want to research your lender options. With Earnest, borrowers in good standing to apply to refinance their loans after four consecutive months of on-time payments to switch between fixed and variable interest rates or to take advantage of better financing if rates drop (beware, however, that doing so will require a hard credit pull, which can affect your credit report).

Here are a few ways you can make sure you’re getting the best rate possible for refinancing your MBA student loan payments.

Reduce the amount you’re refinancing

Even if you have a high income, refinancing a large amount of debt can result in higher interest rates. The more money you borrow, the riskier you are to the lender.

If you have some savings, you might consider making a lump sum payment against your loans before refinancing in order to decrease the amount you borrow — and save you quite a bit of money in interest payments over time.

Or, you can also choose to refinance your debt over time, choosing to refinance just a portion of it now and the rest of it later. This way, you’re still saving a little bit of money in the long run and you may be able to access lower rates in the meantime while doing so.

You might need a cosigner

Even if you have a high-income job and a nearly perfect credit score, you may still need a cosigner in order to qualify for a student loan refinance from Earnest. If you’d like to refinance with a cosigner, keep in mind that you cannot do it the first time you apply with Earnest. If you apply on your own and you are declined, you’ll be given the option to refinance with a cosigner. Asking someone to cosign is a serious commitment. When you loop in a cosigner, you’re making them responsible for your loans in the event you cannot pay.

While Earnest doesn’t offer a co-signer release option, you may be able to refinance your loan again on your own after your initial disbursement, effectively releasing the cosigner from responsibility. These are all things to discuss with your potential cosigner before signing off.

Improve your credit score

As a general rule, the higher your score is, the lower your interest rate offers will be. If your credit score doesn’t meet the minimum or if you can’t get the rate you want with your current score, don’t panic. It takes time to improve your credit history — and this is one of the main reasons recent graduates often have lower credit, just a sheer lack of time to build up a good reputation of making on-time payments — but it’s not impossible to do. One of the fastest ways to improve your credit score is to apply for a credit card if you don’t have one yet. Even if you only buy one cup of coffee per month, paying it off in full at the end of each billing cycle will help you show that you’re a reliable borrower.

You can also improve your credit score by signing up for programs like Experian Boost, which allows you to connect accounts like Netflix and wifi bills directly to your credit score to show that you’re making payments on time.

Look for discounts

Many student loan refinancers, including Earnest, will offer you a small interest rate discount in exchange for signing up for automatic payments. Earnest will take an .25% off whatever your rate is when you sign up for Auto Pay, and this also has the added benefit of making sure you never accidentally miss a payment. The best way to make sure you don’t miss any deals is to check your rate so that you can get on the Earnest email or direct mailing list.

Rate shop

Earnest (and most other lenders) will let you check your refinancing rate without impacting your credit score. It’s a good idea to get multiple rate quotes to see who can offer you the best rate. You can check your rate with Earnest in minutes. Earnest also allows borrowers to set up automatic payments on a biweekly basis (twice per month), so that you can pay off interest nearly as quickly as it accrues, thereby reducing your principal balance a bit faster than you would by paying monthly.

Find out how much you could save with Earnest

If you have loans from an MBA program, you may be paying more than you need to on a monthly basis — which can amount to thousands of dollars over time. See how your monthly payments could decrease, and how much money you could put back into your pocket, by checking your rate with Earnest. It only takes a few minutes to see what you qualify for and it won’t hurt your credit score.

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Victoria Holliday

Victoria is the Head of Content at Earnest. She brings extensive ed-tech expertise from six years at Chegg, where she developed educational resources reaching over 20 million students nationwide.

With a Master’s in Political Science and experience in public policy from several California campaigns, she’s passionate about creating accessible content that enhances student outcomes in the dynamic world of higher education.

Disclaimer

Disclaimer: This blog post provides personal finance educational information, and it is not intended to provide legal, financial, or tax advice.

1 As was announced by the U.S. Department of Education (ED), federal student loans have resumed accruing interest starting September 1, 2023, and federal student loan payments were reinstated starting in October. Please note that you may lose benefits associated with your underlying federal loans, such as federal Income-driven Repayment Plans (an example of which is the SAVE plan), Economic Hardship Deferment, Public Service Loan Forgiveness, or other deferment and forbearance options, if you refinance into a private loan. If you file for bankruptcy, you may still be required to pay back this loan. Seehttps://studentaid.gov/ for more information.

2 Choosing to refinance to a longer term may lower your monthly payment, but increase the amount of interest you may pay. Choosing to refinance to a shorter term may increase your monthly payment, but lower the amount of interest you may pay. Review your loan documentation for the total cost of your refinanced loan.

3 You can take advantage of the Auto Pay interest rate reduction by setting up and maintaining active and automatic ACH withdrawal of your loan payment from a checking or savings account. The interest rate reduction for Auto Pay will be available only while your loan is enrolled in Auto Pay. Interest rate incentives for utilizing Auto Pay may not be combined with certain private student loan repayment programs that also offer an interest rate reduction. For multi-party loans, only one party may enroll in Auto Pay.