College Ave vs. Sallie Mae Student Loan Comparison

When you’re taking out private student loans, you have many lenders to choose from. Student loan options can vary a lot among lenders, so always compare rates, loan options, and repayment options to find the best financial aid for your situation.

College Ave and Sallie Mae are two popular private student loan lenders. This comparison will help you decide which of these two is best for you.

In this comparison:

• College Ave vs. Sallie Mae: at a glance
• Which loans does each lender offer?
• Sallie Mae vs. College Ave: Which is right for you?
• Sallie Mae vs. other lenders

College Ave vs. Sallie Mae: at a glance

Loan Amounts	collegeave-psl-15-amountlow to collegeave-psl-15-amounthigh	salliemae-psl-18-amountlow to salliemae-psl-18-amounthigh
Loan Term Lengths	collegeave-psl-15-termlengthrange_y	salliemae-psl-18-termlengthrange_y
APRs	Variable: collegeave-psl-15-varlow% to collegeave-psl-15-varhigh% Fixed: collegeave-psl-15-fixlow% to collegeave-psl-15-fixhigh%	Variable: salliemae-psl-18-varlow% to salliemae-psl-18-varhigh% Fixed: salliemae-psl-18-fixlow% to salliemae-psl-18-fixhigh%
LendEDU Rating	5.00 / 5.00	4.85 / 5.00
	Check Rates	Check Rates

Which loans does each lender offer?

Both College Ave and Sallie Mae are well-known student loan lenders with a strong reputation for offering education financing to creditworthy borrowers. Both offer a wide variety of loans, so qualified applicants have a good chance to find a fitting loan with either lender.

Each lender’s loan options are listed below. You can learn more about them in our full Sallie Mae student loan review and our full College Ave student loan review. 

Sallie Mae student loan options

College Ave student loan options

Sallie Mae vs. College Ave: Which is right for you?

The table above shows how Sallie Mae and College Ave compare in the most important areas, but sometimes it can be difficult to see where one lender is better than the other.

Here are a few scenarios where one lender may make more sense for you.

• If you want the shortest possible period for cosigner release
• If you want to refinance existing educational debt
• If you want free educational assistance
• If you want a little more time before repayment

If you want the shortest possible period for cosigner release: Sallie Mae

You may require a cosigner with good credit to help you get the loan amount you need with competitive rates. Cosigner release allows a cosigner to be absolved of the legal responsibility for loan repayment when the primary borrower has proved to be able to repay on their own.

Sallie Mae allows cosigner release after salliemae-psl-18-cosignreleasepay months of on-time payments. College Ave makes cosigner release an option only after half the repayment period has lapsed.

If you want to refinance existing educational debt: College Ave

College Ave offers student loan refinance loans, and Sallie Mae does not. Refinancing your student loans can help you lower the interest rate and monthly payment on existing debt, making the repayment process cheaper and easier for the remaining life of the loan.

If you want free educational assistance: Sallie Mae

Sallie Mae offers undergraduate borrowers 30 minutes of Chegg tutoring and four months of access to Chegg Study. College Ave doesn’t provide a comparable benefit. 

Chegg Study offers discounted textbooks, solutions to homework problems, free flashcards, and support from skilled tutors available 24/7. 

If you want a little more time before repayment: Sallie Mae

Both lenders offer an option for deferment of payments while you’re in school and a typical six-month grace period after school, though you’ll continue to accrue interest during that time.

Sallie Mae offers a graduated repayment period, which lets you make only interest payments for a full year after you begin paying back your loan. You have to begin making full payments, including both principal and interest, on a College Ave loan once the repayment term starts.

While this can provide you with more flexibility, making interest-only payments means your principal balance doesn’t go down. As a result, it will take you longer to become debt-free unless you make higher payments later on. 

Sallie Mae vs. other lenders

Make sure you exhaust your options for federal student loans before looking at private lenders. Federal loans could save you money and give you more flexible repayment, such as income-driven repayment plans and student loan forgiveness, in the future.

However, if your cost of attendance is above what you can receive in federal student aid, private loans could fill in the gaps. Compare several lenders to find the lowest rates and repayment terms that make up the best student loan for you.

College Ave isn’t your only alternative to Sallie Mae for private loans for school. See how Sallie Mae stacks up against other private student loan lenders in our Sallie Mae vs. Discover review and our Sallie Mae vs. Wells Fargo comparison.

How we rate student loan lenders

Wondering how we rate the best private student loans? We use a weighted average of several data points to score private student lenders. You can read more about our methodology here.