Sallie Mae makes sense of college financing
Meet Sallie Mae
We help students and families finance their future responsibly.
- Our FAFSA® application tool makes it easier for students to apply for financial aid
- Planning calculators and savings tools for estimating interest and repayments help students plan
- Last year alone, 24,000 students received scholarships to cover more than $67 million in college costs
- Less than 2% of loans defaulted last year
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We help students every step of the way.
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Think Through College Financing Options
Sallie Mae offers a free and detailed planning resource to help students manage the college financing process. Our Paying For College site includes resources to help find scholarships and decode competing financial aid offers, as well as webinars on planning and paying for college and smart money management.
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Submit the FAFSA
The FAFSA is the gateway to $150 billion in scholarships, grants, work study, and federal student loans. Sallie Mae has a free FAFSA® application tool that simplifies the process. The new tool dramatically reduces the time it takes to file for federal financial aid. In fact, students can file in as little as seven minutes.
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Apply for scholarships
Scholarships can be need-based, merit-based, or based on things like your hobbies, field of study, ethnicity, religion, and more. Sallie Mae offers free scholarship search tools to match undergraduate and graduate students to millions of dollars in scholarships. Students fill out a brief profile, and in minutes, and the tool responds with matches that identify relevant scholarships, their award amounts, application requirements, and deadlines. Last year, more than 25,000 students received a scholarship via our search tool covering $67 million in college costs.
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Decide on a college
One of the most critical factors to consider when deciding on the right college is how to pay for it. Sallie Mae offers a free guide to help students make sense of their financial aid offers and help inform their big decision. If students applied for early action or early decision, they’ll hear back from schools as early as December. Otherwise, they hear from schools in late March or early April. It’s important to compare offers to identify the best financial aid packages.
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Make a financing plan
Our free college planning tools and calculators help families consider the full cost of college including room and board, books, and more, not just tuition. Students should factor savings, scholarships, grants, and loans into the plan, and revise it as more resources become available to them.
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Bridge any financing gaps
Our 1-2-3 approach to paying-for-college helps simplify the financing decisions students and families make. First, apply for scholarships to reduce the size of needed loans. Second, explore federal financing options by completing the FAFSA. Finally, if needed, fill any financing gaps with a responsible private loan.
