Financial Aid News 142: Finding your student loans

From NASFAA:

“Beginning July 1, the majority of families who hold federal Stafford, Grad PLUS or Parent PLUS loans will receive notices that their loans have been bought by the Department of Education, says Sam Nelson, director of client relations for the Illinois Student Assistance Commission,” Bankrate.com reports. “‘To help lenders stay in the student loan market, the federal government is buying on the secondary market and servicing the loans themselves,’ says Nelson. ‘Six out of every 10 student loan dollars are now made with federal money instead of with private capital.’ Although the change is no cause for alarm, students should be aware that the switch in loan servicers could affect certain borrower incentives and will affect where payments should be sent.”

Commentary

Be sure you keep your student loan information up to date. If you’re not sure who holds your student loans, the Department of Education maintains a database called NSLDS that will tell you exactly how much you owe and to whom you should be making payments. Be sure to contact your lender if anything changes – the responsibility for staying in touch (and avoiding credit problems from non-payment or late payment) is entirely yours.

File under “So that’s the value of this college degree” via Inside Higher Ed:

Charity Townsend Caldwell was walking into her commencement ceremonies to graduate from the nursing program at Southwest Tennessee Community College last month when she saw a crowd of people around a man. As The Memphis Commercial Appeal reported, Caldwell used her nursing skills on the spot — using chest compressions to revive the man, who turned out the college’s dean of health sciences. He suffered a heart attack and has since recovered, but officials say that but for Caldwell’s intervention, he likely would not have survived.

Scholarship Update

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