Posts with the tag preferred lender lists

FAMU Gets the Message?

pdelatorre — Fri, 04 May 2007 11:17:08 EDT

Campus Progress recently reported that Florida A&M University was misleading students into thinking that they had no choice of lender for their federal loans. We found out yesterday that they must have gotten the message, because they have taken the problematic text off of their webpage.

Let’s hope that FAMU and all other universities that have not been upfront with students about their rights are revaluating their programs.

Asleep at the Switch

pdelatorre — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 18:31:56 EDT

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo testified before the House Education committee today about his office’s headline-grabbing investigation into the often cozy relationships between student loan companies and college financial aid offices. He called many of the practices he uncovered “predatory lending,” and said that the mortgage market is now safer for consumers than the student loan market because of the lack of regulation, enforcement, and oversight.

Another Student Loan Scandal

pdelatorre — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 11:57:57 EDT

The good folks at Higher Ed Watch have found out that financial aid administrators at UT-Austin, Columbia, and the University of Southern California have financial interests in the same companies that they placed on their preferred lender lists.

Financial aid officers in all three schools sit on the advisory board of Student Loan Xpress, and owned stock in its parent companies. It seems stock options are given to board members, who can purchase them at discounted rates.