You can defer Sallie Mae private student loans in a limited set of situations: going back to school at least half-time, or entering a qualifying internship, residency, fellowship, or law clerkship. Deferment pauses your required monthly payments, but interest keeps building the entire time, and that unpaid interest eventually gets added to your principal balance. Sallie Mae does not offer deferment for general financial hardship; that falls under forbearance, which is handled case by case.
Who Qualifies and for How Long
Sallie Mae’s deferment program is tied to enrollment, not income or hardship. Two categories qualify.
Going Back to School
If you enroll at least half-time at an eligible school, you can request in-school deferment for up to 48 months on both undergraduate and graduate Sallie Mae loans.1Sallie Mae. Deferring Payments for School/Internships The deferment stays active as long as you remain enrolled at least half-time. When you leave school or graduate, you typically get a six-month grace period before repayment starts up again.2Sallie Mae. How to Make the Most of Your Student Loan Grace Period
Internship, Residency, Fellowship, or Law Clerkship
If you enter a professional training program such as a medical residency, dental internship, fellowship, or law clerkship, you can apply for deferment in 12-month increments. The cap depends on the loan: up to 60 months for undergraduate loans, and up to 48 months for graduate and professional school loans, including the Sallie Mae Medical School Loan, Dental School Loan, Health Professions Graduate Loan, Law School Loan, and Graduate School Loan.1Sallie Mae. Deferring Payments for School/Internships A program official has to verify your enrollment and program dates on the form.
How to Request a Deferment
Start by downloading the correct form from Sallie Mae’s website. There are two: one for in-school deferment and one for internship, residency, fellowship, or law clerkship deferment. You’ll need your customer identification number, account information, and for in-school deferment, your school code and expected graduation date.3Sallie Mae. In-School Deferment Request Form
Part of each form has to be filled in by someone else. For in-school deferment, that’s the school registrar or enrollment verification office. For residency or fellowship deferment, it’s the program director confirming your training dates.1Sallie Mae. Deferring Payments for School/Internships Missing certifications will hold up approval.
Submit the completed form by logging into your Sallie Mae account and uploading it.3Sallie Mae. In-School Deferment Request Form One timing rule to watch: Sallie Mae will not process an in-school deferment if your school start date is more than 30 days away.
Keep making your regular payments until Sallie Mae confirms the deferment is approved. There’s no guaranteed processing timeline, and if you stop paying before approval comes through, you can end up with late fees or a late payment on your credit report.1Sallie Mae. Deferring Payments for School/Internships
What Deferment Actually Costs You
Unlike subsidized federal loans, Sallie Mae private loans keep accruing interest every day of deferment. Daily interest equals your outstanding principal times your interest rate, divided by 365.4Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Tips for Paying Off Student Loans More Easily Because you’re not paying, that interest piles up.
Then it gets added to your balance. Sallie Mae capitalizes unpaid interest, meaning the accumulated interest is folded into your principal, so future interest is calculated on the larger amount. On loans with deferred or fixed repayment terms, capitalization can happen as often as quarterly during the deferment period, not just when deferment ends.3Sallie Mae. In-School Deferment Request Form
A concrete example: defer a $10,000 loan at 10% interest for one year, and roughly $1,000 in interest gets added to your balance. From that point on, interest is calculated on $11,000, not $10,000.
Cutting the Cost While You’re in Deferment
You don’t have to make payments during deferment, but Sallie Mae allows and encourages you to at least pay the interest as it accrues.3Sallie Mae. In-School Deferment Request Form Paying interest as you go keeps it from being capitalized into your principal. Even partial interest payments help.
If you’re still in school and haven’t started repayment yet, another option is to choose Sallie Mae’s interest-only repayment (pay just the interest each month while enrolled) or fixed repayment (a set monthly amount while in school and during the grace period) rather than full deferment.5Sallie Mae. Student Loan Guide Both cost less over the life of the loan because they prevent or reduce capitalization.
How Deferment Affects a Cosigner
If someone cosigned your loan, deferment does not release them. The cosigner stays equally liable for the entire deferment period, and because interest capitalizes, the balance they’re on the hook for grows. Sallie Mae doesn’t require the cosigner’s signature on your deferment request, but they should know their exposure is increasing.
Deferment can also push back cosigner release. Sallie Mae requires 12 consecutive on-time principal-and-interest payments to qualify for release, and payments made during an in-school, separation, or grace period, including interest-only or fixed payments, do not count.6Sallie Mae. Apply to Release Your Student Loan Cosigner You also can’t have had any loan in a hardship forbearance or modified repayment program in the 12 months before applying. If releasing your cosigner matters to you, factor that in before deferring.
Military Service
Sallie Mae does not run a standalone military deferment program the way federal loans do. What it offers instead are protections under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, which caps interest at 6% on pre-service debts for active duty servicemembers.7U.S. Department of Justice. 6% Interest Rate Cap for Servicemembers on Pre-Service Debts Sallie Mae goes beyond the legal minimum by voluntarily capping interest at 4% for eligible servicemembers regardless of when the loan was opened, and by waiving fees on eligible accounts.8Sallie Mae. SCRA Benefits for Servicemembers
Eligibility covers full-time active duty members of all six military branches, reservists on active duty, National Guard members on orders for more than 30 days, and commissioned officers in the Public Health Service or NOAA. Cosigners on a loan with an eligible servicemember qualify too. Sallie Mae extends these benefits for one additional year after service ends.8Sallie Mae. SCRA Benefits for Servicemembers To activate SCRA protections, you generally submit a written request with a copy of your active duty orders.9Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. What Student Loan Relief Exists for Active-Duty Members of the Military
When Deferment Isn’t an Option
Deferment is only for the enrollment-based situations above. If you’re struggling to pay because you lost a job, had a medical issue, or hit some other financial hardship, deferment does not apply. Sallie Mae may instead offer forbearance, which also pauses or reduces payments temporarily but runs on different rules and is negotiated case by case.
Sallie Mae does not publish detailed forbearance eligibility criteria; borrowers in trouble are directed to call or chat with a representative. Interest still accrues and capitalizes during forbearance the same way it does in deferment. And a hardship forbearance in the past 12 months blocks you from applying for cosigner release during that window.6Sallie Mae. Apply to Release Your Student Loan Cosigner If you see a payment problem coming, reach out before you miss a payment: your options are better then than after a delinquency is on your file.