We’re in the business of promoting responsible borrowing and advocating for policies and solutions that support higher education access, affordability, and completion.

The Sallie Mae^® of today might surprise you. We’re not a part of the federal government or a federal student loan servicer — we’re an education solutions company, providing students and families with free college planning resources and responsible private student loans to cover any gaps in financing after income and savings, scholarships, grants, and other federal financial aid.

Sallie Mae’s approach is rooted in a responsible lending philosophy: students and families should borrow only what they need and what they can reasonably afford to repay. The federal student loan program, however, allows too many students and families to overborrow for higher education. By offering some federal student loans in virtually unlimited amounts, without consideration of a borrower’s ability to repay them, the federal program allows, predictably, unsustainable levels of debt. Recent polling shows most Americans believe addressing the unlimited nature of federal loan programs would be an important step in protecting students and making college more affordable. A recent editorial in the Washington Post agreed. Sallie Mae supports responsible lending, and common-sense reforms to the federal student aid system.

Sallie Mae Supports Access and Affordability

Of the $1.74 trillion outstanding student loan debt in 2024, $1.6 trillion – about 93% – was made and held by the federal government. The remaining 7% are private student loans, which are credit-based and underwritten by numerous private lenders, including Sallie Mae, who assess the borrower’s ability to repay before making a loan.

Borrowing for higher education should be the last step students and families take when paying for college. The first step is to find money that doesn’t need to be repaid, or “free money,” such as scholarships and grants. The second step is to explore federal financial aid by filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®) to  access more than $111 billion in federal aid available through the government. If there is a remaining financing gap, a responsible private student loan may be an option.

Our responsible lending approach works. On average, fewer than 3% of our loans in repayment default annually.

Sallie Mae is committed to helping students succeed.

Providing responsible financing is just one part of how Sallie Mae achieves its mission of powering confidence for students and families navigating their unique journeys to, through and immediately after college, while avoiding the pitfalls of unlimited federal lending. Our goal is to help families make informed decisions about higher education and complete their degrees, which is why we provide free financial planning tools for anyone to use, whether they’re a Sallie Mae customer or not.

We guide students and their families by emphasizing financial literacy from day one — before they even take out a loan. Our array of tools and resources to help students effectively plan and pay for college is available for free on SallieMae.com.

Examples of our tools include:

• A free scholarship search tool helps connect students to scholarships based on their skills and interests.
• We provide a variety of college planning tools and calculators to help customers understand how to best save and pay, including a college cost calculator, college planning calculator, and a step-by-step FAFSA guide.
• Through The Sallie Mae Fund, we have provided millions of dollars in scholarships to support access and completion for students from underserved communities. By the end of the 2023-2024 academic year, we awarded over $4 million in scholarships through this program, in partnership with the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.

If students decide to take out private student loans with us, we want to make sure they’re informed. We provide clear communications regarding their choices, including the option for undergraduate and graduate students to make payments while in school. Roughly half of Sallie Mae customers go this route, which helps save on the total cost of their student loans. We also provide consistent communication regarding their loans, including an annual statement detailing what they owe.

We know that financing higher education can be complex and confusing, but Sallie Mae is here to make sense of it. That means ensuring students and families feel confident and informed about how to plan and pay for higher education, and if they need to borrow, providing responsible options to power them throughout their unique journey.

FAFSA is a registered service mark of U.S. Department of Education, Federal Student Aid