Financial Aid Options When the Award Letter Comes Up Short: Tips for College-Bound Students and Their Parents

RESTON, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--College-bound students who have compared their financial aid award packages might find they need more money to cover the full cost of college. Sallie Mae, the nation’s leading saving- and paying-for-college company, reminds students and families there are still options to help pay for higher education.

When grants, scholarships, and federal student loans are not enough, Sallie Mae recommends families explore these additional tips for paying the college bill:

• Don’t assume it’s too late to apply for additional scholarships. While some scholarship deadlines have passed already, there are many with late spring or summer deadlines. Students and parents can quickly identify potential scholarships with upcoming deadlines by using Sallie Mae’s free online Scholarship Search, which includes information about more than 3 million awards worth more than $16 billion in scholarship dollars. The scholarship search is available at www.SallieMae.com/scholarships.
• Let family and friends know that milestones like high school graduation or birthdays are perfect times for giving the gift of education. Instead of traditional gifts, relatives and friends can add to a student’s 529 college savings plan account through Ugift. Ugift enables account owners in participating 529 college savings plans to invite others to make contributions for a college-bound student. For more information about Ugift and participating plans, please visit www.529.com/ugift.
• Earn extra money for college through Sallie Mae’s Upromise free rewards service. Members can save money for college while making eligible everyday purchases of participating products and services from groceries to gas, shopping their favorite online stores, dining out or even taking a summer vacation. Upromise members have earned more than $475 million in member rewards since 2001. Rewards accumulate in a member’s Upromise account and can be transferred into a 529 college savings plan account administered by Upromise Investments or used to pay down eligible Sallie Mae-serviced student loans. Visit www.Upromise.com for more information.
• Use an interest-free tuition payment plan to make paying for college more manageable. Available at hundreds of college campuses, Sallie Mae’s TuitionPay plan lets families spread tuition payments over a number of months instead of making a large lump-sum payment at the beginning of the semester. Visit https://tuitionpay.salliemae.com for more information.
• Consider federally guaranteed parent loans to help foot the tuition bill. PLUS Loans are low-cost federal loans for parents of undergraduate students. At fixed interest rates of 8.5%, families can finance up to the full cost of education – not only tuition, room and board, but also books and supplies. Visit www.SallieMae.com for more information.
• Tap private student loans with faster pay-off times. Sallie Mae’s Smart Option Student Loan, new for the 2009-2010 academic year, helps students save money, build good credit, and pay off their student loan debt faster. Featuring interest-only payments while in school, the Smart Option Student Loan enables the typical customer to pay off the balance nine years sooner and save an estimated 60 percent in finance charges compared to most other private student loan alternatives. Sallie Mae recommends private student loans for families who have exhausted their eligibility for free or less-expensive funds such as scholarships, grants and federal student loans. Students are encouraged to apply with a creditworthy cosigner to increase the likelihood of approval and to help access a lower interest rate. Visit www.SallieMae.com/smartoption for more information.

• Talk to the campus financial aid office if family finances have changed. Colleges can adjust their award packages when a family encounters special circumstances, such as if a parent is laid off or takes a salary cut. The Department of Education recently sent a letter to colleges indicating that they may consider likely income over a 12-month period rather than only looking at past income in awarding Pell Grants and other aid. In addition, if parents are turned down for a federal PLUS loan, a student may qualify for higher loan limits through federal Stafford loans.

Sallie Mae’s free Education Investment Planner (available at www.SallieMae.com/plan) can help college-bound students and their families build their own customized plan to pay for college, explore various funding options, and, when applicable, estimate monthly payments for student loans.

SLM Corporation (NYSE:SLM), commonly known as Sallie Mae, is the nation’s leading provider of saving- and paying-for-college programs. Through its subsidiaries, the company manages $185 billion in education loans and serves 10 million student and parent customers. Through its Upromise affiliates, the company also manages more than $17 billion in 529 college-savings plans, and is a major, private source of college funding contributions in America with 10 million members and more than $475 million in member rewards. Sallie Mae and its subsidiaries offer debt management services as well as business and technical products to a range of business clients, including higher education institutions, student loan guarantors and state and federal agencies. More information is available at www.salliemae.com. SLM Corporation and its subsidiaries are not sponsored by or agencies of the United States of America.