Editorial standards & disclosure policy
How we decide what to publish, how we choose which lenders to show you, and exactly how we get paid. Nothing here should surprise you.
Editorial Standards
Grad Navigator exists to explain a confusing, fast-changing part of the loan system in plain language. That only works if the explanations are accurate and kept current — so here’s exactly how we hold ourselves to that.
How content gets reviewed
Every explainer on this site is drafted, then reviewed by a named person before it’s published — not just spell-checked, but checked against the actual source: federal guidance, lender disclosures, and studentaid.gov. Nothing goes live without a reviewer’s name attached to it.
Editorial Team
Drafts every explainer directly from primary sources — federal rule text, lender rate sheets, and disclosure documents.
Editorial Team
Checks every published page against current source material before and after it goes live.
Sourcing & citations
We link to the primary source wherever one exists — studentaid.gov for federal rules, a lender’s own published rate disclosures for anything comparison-related. If we can’t verify a number against a primary source, we don’t publish it.
Keeping content current
Every page carries a “reviewed as of” date. Grad loan rules have changed meaningfully this year, and they’ll likely change again — pages get re-checked on a regular cycle, and immediately whenever we learn of a rule change that affects them.
Corrections
If something on this site is wrong, we want to know before you do something costly based on it. Corrections are made promptly, and material corrections are noted on the page itself rather than silently edited away.
Spot something that looks off? Contact us and we’ll look into it.
Editorial independence
Our lender partners do not write, review, or approve our content. What we say about how a rate works, what a fee means, or whether you need a cosigner is written the same way whether or not that lender happens to be a partner.
Disclosure Policy
This site is free to use and makes money the way most independent comparison sites do — through partner relationships with lenders. Here’s exactly how that works.
Short version: if you’re approved through a lender we link to, we may earn a commission. It costs you nothing extra, and it doesn’t change your rate or how we rank lenders.
How we earn money
When you click through to a lender from this site and are approved for a loan, that lender may pay us a referral commission. This is standard for comparison sites and is how we’re able to keep every explainer on this site free to read, with no paywall and no email required just to browse.
How we choose which lenders to show
Lenders don’t pay to be listed, and paying us more doesn’t move a lender up in a comparison. We select and prioritize lenders based on:
- Whether their rates and terms are genuinely competitive for the borrower situation the page is about
- Credit-flexibility, especially for borrowers who may need a cosigner
- How clearly the lender discloses its own rates, fees, and eligibility criteria
What doesn’t change based on our relationship with a lender
Your interest rate, your approval odds, and your loan terms are set entirely by the lender based on your application. We have no ability to influence any of that, and being a partner of ours never results in a better or worse rate for you.
Advertising & sponsored content
Any sponsored content, if it ever appears, will be clearly labeled as such — never blended into an explainer as if it were independent editorial.
Have a question this didn’t answer?
We’re glad to explain anything about how this site works.