Who Sallie Mae Is — and Isn’t

We promote responsible borrowing and advocate for policies and solutions that support higher education access, affordability, and completion.

The Sallie Mae^® of today might surprise you. We’re not part of the federal government or a federal student loan servicer. We provide 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.

Investing in Student Success

Students are more likely to succeed when they start with outcomes in mind and have a clear picture about planning and paying for college. That’s why we provide free scholarship resources, FAFSA guidance, and financial education to help families make informed decisions about their higher education.

Last year, more than 5 million students and families accessed these free resources:

• Scholly Scholarship Search which helps connect students to scholarships based on their skills and interests.
• Scout College Search which helps students explore and compare colleges based on what matters most to them – like majors, location, and cost – so they can find the right school.
• A step-by-step guide to completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)
• Scholarship programs like the Bridging the Dream Scholarship for High School Seniors, the Completing the Dream Scholarship, and the Bridging the Dream for Graduate School have provided more than $5 million and helped more than 1,200 students access and complete their education.
• Free calculators and resources to help families budget, estimate college costs, and navigate repayment.
• Industry leading research on planning, paying, and completing college, as well as succeeding after college.

Our Approach to Lending

Private student loans, like those offered by Sallie Mae, make up roughly 8% of total loans for higher education today. The remaining 92% of outstanding loans  are made by the federal government.

If a student does need to borrow – and roughly half do – Sallie Mae believes they should borrow only what they need and what they can reasonably afford to repay. To that end, Sallie Mae embeds a broad set of customer protections in the products that it offers.

Sallie Mae conducts a thorough assessment of the customer’s ability to repay before lending – a feature that goes well above and beyond what is required by the federal loan program. To ensure students borrow only what they need to cover their cost of attendance, Sallie Mae actively engages with schools and requires school certification before disbursing a loan. To help students understand their loan terms, Sallie Mae provides truth-in-lending disclosures and multiple, customized disclosures that include the interest rate, whether the interest rate is fixed or variable, and an estimate of the loan’s total cost. Requiring these same disclosures across federal student lending programs would give families clear, comparable information.

That disciplined approach is working. On average, our customers pay back their loans in 7 years, and fewer than 3% of loans in repayment default annually. Sallie Mae also recognizes that, for some students, a loan is simply not the right answer. That’s why the company continues to advocate broader reforms including meaningfully expanding Pell grants, making financial aid offers easier to compare, providing more access to scholarships, and simplifying the credit transfer process to boost college completion.

Higher education remains one of the most important investments a family can make. It works best when the system is transparent, accountable, and focused on outcomes. Our work is grounded in that belief, and it’s why we continue to help students go smarter to college and advocate for policies that make the higher education system work better for students and families.

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