As with any other personal loan that is unsecured,  your ability to get the loan is based completely on your ability to pay it back.   Institutions do not loan money to people if there is any doubt that they will not repay it.  If you think you can get private student loans not based on credit scores you will have to have someone who has good credit scores to co sign the note with you.   Your loan will then be based your co signers credit scores and not your own.  If you fail to pay the loan back your co signers credit will be impacted until the loan is paid.