Students walking across a college campus.

Dreamers Graduate Loan Program

Impact Investments, Education, Economic Mobility

Highlights

$100MFund to help Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) college scholarship recipients pay for graduate school

80+

Number of students who have financed their graduate education through this program to date

Learn more and apply →

Students with questions about the program and scholarship programs, institutions, or associations interested in becoming partners can email dreamersgradloan@socialfinance.org.

Social Finance is partnering with TheDream.US, Golden Door Scholars, and Equal Chance For Education on a $100 million graduate school loan program for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) recipients who want to pursue professional degrees but can’t access public loan programs due to their immigration statuses. This first-of-its-kind impact investment fund, which started as a pilot with TheDream.US in 2021, aims to provide loans to more than 1,000 college scholarship recipients to help them achieve economic and social mobility.

Goals

  • Expand access to opportunity: Dreamers who receive financial aid through the fund can access loans with interest rates on par with those available to American citizens via the federal government’s Direct PLUS loan program.
  • Prioritize student wellbeing: Guided by a Student Bill of Rights, the program is designed to ensure that participants only take on manageable debt to achieve their career aspirations. To further enable manageable debt, participants, through a partnership with UnidosUS, are provided with no-cost, individualized access to 1:1 financial coaching covering topics ranging from debt repayment and management to improving credit.
  • Catalyze economic mobility: With professional degrees in fields such as business, education, medicine, and law, graduates can land well-paying jobs in fields desperate for new talent and perspectives. Over time, students build track records of repayment that help attract more low-cost capital to finance loans for future students.

Participant Stories

Thanks to a Game-Changing Loan, Homero is in Medical School
Homero Coss Headshot

Thanks to a Game-Changing Loan, Homero is in Medical School

Homero moved with his family from a border town in Mexico to Texas when he was just three. Growing up in Laredo, he decided he wanted to become an osteopath. But, like other Dreamers, he didn’t have access to federal student loans to attend college, much less medical school. After winning a scholarship, he got some good news: TheDream.US, in partnership with Social Finance, was piloting a new initiative.

How It Works

Thanks to Social Finance, thousands of Dreamer college graduates will have a chance to become doctors, lawyers, teachers, and much more.

Donald Graham

Chairman of the Board, Graham Holdings Company

Donald Graham Headshot

Partners and Supporters

Website Notices

Photos courtesy of TheDream.US.

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