Having three kids in college, I’m not the biggest fan of personal student loans. That is, unless you really need the cash to top up the next year (hopefully) for juniors on campus, and you’ve reached your federal student credit limits and can’t get access to scholarships, grants, or unemployment benefits.

Unlike federal student loans, which are easier to obtain, have lower interest rates, and more repayment options, private student loans are an easy second choice for American college-bound households.

All in all, private student loans seem to have more hurdles than ever in 2020, although they are becoming increasingly popular, according to the statement The report “State of Private Student Loans” just published by LendEDU.

The study, published annually, tracks hundreds of thousands of rows of LendEDU’s proprietary student loan data to identify trends such as average interest rate, approval rate, loan size, and applied creditworthiness versus approved creditworthiness.

Feel free to check out the full report at the link, but here are some notable takeaways from this year’s study.

If you’re in the student loan market and haven’t considered a personal loan, I’m still not sure why you should want one – unless, as mentioned above, you have all of the other college funding options exhausted.

That from the report:

— In 2020, the approval rate for private student loans was 21.61%, up from 16% in 2019. That year, the approval rate for co-signers was 36.09%, while the approval rate for those applying without a co-signer , 8.84%.

— In 2020, the average student loan applicant has a credit score of 638, while the average credit point of an approved applicant is 748.

— In 2020, the average private student loan amount funded was $ 11,279, down from the average of $ 13,954 in 2019 and well below the average of $ 16,285 in 2016.

— In 2019, the average student loan rate was 10.63%, while the average floating rate was 11.20% and the average fixed rate was 10.20%.

— In 2019, the average student loan interest rate for someone with a co-signer was 9.81%, while the average floating rate was 9.30% and the average fixed rate was 10.20%.

— In 2019, the average student loan applicant had an income of $ 48,441, while the average income of an approved applicant was $ 76,964.

According to LendEDU, 2020 could be the “Unsafe Year Ever” for private lenders due to the uncertainty surrounding higher education, and many students are opting for gap years or looking for cheaper alternatives.

Hence, a closer look at private student loans might be an option to keep your nose up as the fall college semester season approaches – with all that 2020 brings.