According to the Washington Post, Sallie Mae announced yesterday that it is being investigated by the Federal Education Department.  Read an excerpt from the article below:

Sallie Mae said yesterday that the Education Department is investigating its billing practices and that its business of issuing loans subsidized by the federal government will be significantly less profitable because of changes by Congress.

The disclosures were in a regulatory filing outlining the Reston student lender’s plans to raise $3 billion to satisfy an agreement requiring it to buy back its own stock at above-market prices. Sallie Mae shares closed
yesterday at their lowest price since 2001.

In its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, SLM Corp., as the company is officially known, also said it faces a federal lawsuit filed in Connecticut that seeks class-action status and alleges that Sallie Mae steered minority students toward more expensive loans. The company denied the charge in the filing.

The company has been on a roller coaster since the unraveling of a planned $25.3 billion buyout that would have given its stockholders $60 per share.
…
The collapse of Sallie Mae’s months-long effort to sell itself to a group of investors led by private-equity firm J.C. Flowers has left the company with a host of problems. Since the deal was announced early this year, Sallie Mae’s credit rating has deteriorated, and its borrowing costs have risen.  Meanwhile, its bread-and-butter business, issuing student loans subsidized by the federal government, has become less profitable.
…
In its SEC filing, Sallie Mae said that changes enacted this year in a federal student loan program “will
significantly reduce and, combined with higher financing costs, could possibly eliminate the profitability
of” issuing new loans through the program.

That statement struck a different note from arguments the company had made when it was fighting to
keep the buyout on track. The buyers argued that they were entitled to walk away from the deal because
the legislation cutting subsidies to lenders substantially changed the economics of Sallie Mae’s business.

Yes – you read that correctly.  I found the story on my Yahoo news feed this morning.  It also occurred to me – if they’re smart enough to get in to college, at what point did they decided this was a good idea?  Read the story below:

Two college students who claimed they were trying to raise tuition money through armed robberies got a tough lesson in court Thursday.

A Hamilton County common pleas judge sentenced Andrew Butler and Christopher Avery to 20-year prison terms and told them dire financial straits don’t justify breaking the law.

“If you get to that point, robbing people isn’t the answer. It never has been and it never will be,” Judge Steven Martin said.

Butler, 20, and Avery, 22, apologized to their families and their victims before Martin imposed the sentence.

The men pleaded guilty to two charges of aggravated robbery and six charges of kidnapping.

Butler, who attended the University of Toledo, told Martin in an earlier hearing that tuition increases outpaced his scholarships and financial aid. Avery, a student at the University of Cincinnati, said he couldn’t pay for summer classes after an internship fell through.

Prosecutors said the two had guns and were wearing masks when they made off with $130,000 from a crowded bank in suburban Reading on July 17. A day earlier, they unsuccessfully tried to rob a check-cashing business, prosecutors said.

They were caught while switching cars after the bank robbery

Most people know that joining the military or Peace Corps willhelp pay off student loans – but did you know there are other ways?

Here’s an excerpt from an article at the American Chronicle describing other possibilities:

Student loan forgiveness for either Perkins Loans or Stafford Loans can be achieved through full-time teaching positions at a low-income school as designated by the U.S. Department of Education or teaching in certain subject areas such as special education, mathematics, science, foreign languages and bilingual education. The chief administrator of the qualified school at which you taught will have to verify your participation and completion. Depending on your qualifications, you could earn forgiveness of from $5,000 to as much as $17,500 in loans.

Certain health care professionals can also have their payments deferred or totally forgiven with participation in the Nursing Education Loan Repayment Program. The NELRP will repay 60 percent of the qualifying loan balance of registered nurses who are selected for funding in exchange for 2 years of service at a critical shortage facility. Those selected may be allowed to work a third year and receive repayment for an additional 25 percent of their qualifying loan balance. Only about 15% of the total number of applicants were selected to participate in the program for the last two years.

The National Health Service Corps Loan Repayment Program provides for up to $50,000 in forgiveness for qualifying educational loans in exchange for two years service in a underserved communities. Areas of need currently are primary care professionals, including dental and mental and behavioral health clinicians.

There are other, less common ways to become eligible for partial or total student loan discharge. For example, if the school happened to close within 90 days of your enrollment and you were unable to finish your course(s), you may be eligible for a

partial discharge of your loan, dependent on the amount of your expenses. If you did not receive an expected refund, you may be eligible for forgiveness of the amount of that refund. If your signature was forged on your loan agreements, your loan can be forgiven. If you die or find yourself temporarily or permanently disabled, you may receive student loan cancellation.