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2. Complete a Federal Stafford Student Loan
Master Promissory Note (MPN), which provides consent and agreement between you
and your lender.
In an effort to assist students and families in choosing a lender, Washington
University has compiled, through a formal evaluation process, a list of lenders
we consider to offer competitive products, solid customer service, electronic
payment of loan funds and a variety of savings programs during loan repayment.
The criteria used to evaluate lenders, in order of importance, are:
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Competitive Loan Products
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Loan Repayment Benefits
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Payment of Origination Fees
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Loan Forgiveness Programs
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Customer Service
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Default Prevention
There have been many changes in the student loan industry. As a student
loan borrower, you need to understand what you need to do in order to
prepare for the 2008-2009 academic year.
There are two contributing factors to the changes we are seeing. One factor is
the passage of the College Cost Reduction and Access Act (CCRA) on October 1, 2007.
The CCRA increased the fees that lenders pay to participate in the Federal Family
Education Loan Program (FFELP) and reduced the subsidies lenders receive for
participating in the FFEL program. The second factor is the current “credit crunch”
in the financial markets caused by the sub-prime mortgage lending issue. Overall,
lending institutions are experiencing higher costs for funds used to provide loans
of all types – including Federal Stafford loans.
Recently, the Department of Education announced a plan to help lenders
get the funding they need to provide students with Federal loans for the upcoming academic
year. However, lenders who utilize this option have had to change their repayment benefits.
As a result of so many changes being made to borrower benefits
offered by each lender, we believe it is in your best interest to carefully evaluate your
borrower relationship with a Stafford Loan lender of your choice.
We are asking all students who plan to enroll in classes during the upcoming
academic year to take the following steps:
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Do some research. Find out what lenders are
providing. You may refer to the Repayment Benefits Chart to see what benefits the
lenders on our list are offering.As always, you are welcome to use any lender you
choose even if they do not appear on the lender chart.
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Contact your lender to inquire about the current
benefits they are offering. Previous borrowers can find your Stafford lender
information at
https://www.nslds.ed.gov/nslds_SA/. You will be required to establish an ID and PIN,
but this helpful resource tracks the status of all Federal loans from loan
origination through repayment.
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Choose a lender for your 2008-2009 Federal Stafford Loan
. Familiarize yourself with the lender’s Web site, and prepare to complete the
necessary requirements to apply for your student loan online.
Please note that you are not required to use any of these lenders — the choice
of lender is yours. We will process your loan with any lender you choose.
Further, the list of lenders is not in any order of preference.
These lenders provided assurance to the University and the student and
parent borrowers that the advertised benefits upon repayment will
continue to inure to the benefit of the student and parent borrowers
regardless of whether the lender's loans are sold. Note: Clicking on
these links will take you from the Washington University web site and
redirect you to the lender's web site.
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