Who Sallie Mae Is — and Isn’t

We’re in the business of promoting responsible borrowing and supporting students with free tools and resources to power confidence on their unique journeys.

The Sallie Mae® of today might surprise you. We’re not a government student loan servicer — in fact, we’re a completely different business and have been for more than a decade. 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 is not a federal loan servicer.

The name Sallie Mae has been around since the ‘70s, but today’s Sallie Mae is relatively new.

When Sallie Mae first formed, it was a government-sponsored enterprise servicing federal student loans — or loans made by the government. But in 2014, it split into two separate companies. The Sallie Mae of today, however, is an education solutions company and consumer banking business. The other company became Navient. Importantly, the two companies are independent and not associated with one another.

Of the $1.7 trillion outstanding student loan debt in 2023, $1.6 trillion – or about 93% – was made and held by the federal government. The remaining – roughly 7% of student loan debt – was held by numerous private lenders, including Sallie Mae.

Sallie Mae is in the business of fair and responsible lending.

Sallie Mae’s approach is shaped by our responsible lending philosophy — that students and families should not be overburdened with loans that they won’t be able to repay. Simply put, students shouldn’t pay more for college than necessary.

We believe that higher education should be affordable and accessible.  Private student loans should be used to fill the gap between resources available to students and the remaining cost of college, and not as a first resort.

In fact, taking out a private loan is the last step of our three-step approach to paying for higher education. 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®) and gaining access to more than $111 billion in federal aid available through the government. If there is a remaining financing gap, then a 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. 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 our website.   

Examples of our tools include:

• A free scholarship search tool – Scholarship Search by Sallie 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 our charitable arm, The Sallie Mae Fund, we provide 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 will have awarded approximately $3 million in scholarships through this program, in partnership with Thurgood Marshall College Fund.  

If students do 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 undergrad and grad 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 is 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