Student loan counseling requirements
As you finalize any outstanding loans for any of your American students, we wanted to provide to you a couple of quick reminders about entrance counseling for your new students.
Loan counseling is an important requirement under the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP). It not only serves as a critical step in ensuring you maintain compliance with FFELP regulations, but it also serves to ensure students are aware of their loan obligations so they can minimize overborrowing.
Before providing students with their loan disbursement funds, you should be sure that each student’s file is documented with information showing that entrance counseling was completed.
There are many ways counseling can be conducted. Some staff prefer to meet with students in person, while others use online programs, such as Sallie Mae's OpenNet loan system. In-person (individual or group sessions) and interactive, online sessions are both permissible, provided you cover the required items during a session.
You must provide entrance counseling to your first-time student borrowers and it must be conducted before making their first disbursement available. Among the things that must be provided during counseling are:
- An explanation of the Master Promissory Note (MPN), and that the serial loan feature cannot be used by institutions outside the U.S.
- Discussion about the student borrower’s obligation to repay (regardless of whether he or she completes their program of study)
- Description of default consequences, such as legal action or wage garnishment, and ineligibility for future loans
- Information about sample repayment based on a range of student indebtedness or an average
Additionally, this is a useful time for students to stay in touch with their lenders and the best way to ensure they don’t fall behind on their loan obligations. Providing updated contact information and letting lenders know if a student takes a semester off, for example, might help the student to proactively take steps to ensure they don’t become delinquent or default on their loan.
If you would like more information about counseling, and options online, please contact your Sallie Mae International representative.
Institutional certification checklist
Throughout the past summer, we have received a few queries from institutions where a loan application has been delayed due to confusion with the school certification. To help you process these loan requests and to help minimize any delays, the following is a quick checklist of required information when completing the school certifications either by paper or online.
- Grade level: Undergraduate students should be classified as 1–5 depending on year of study (anyone over their fifth year should remain coded as 5). Postgraduate students should be classified as A–D depending of year of study (D should be used for fourth year and over).
- Enrollment status: Please ensure you mark one of the options provided on the form. If the student is attending less than half time, he/she will not be eligible for support, so you will not need to complete the school certification.
- Anticipated completion date: This date should be the date on which the student completes their course, rather than the date of the graduation ceremony. Be careful to watch the date format — you should use MM/DD/YY.
- Loan period: Be careful with the format of the dates (MM/DD/YY). The loan period should be no longer than one year as the loans are applied for annually rather than a whole course. For example, if the course is 15 months long, the student can apply for additional support for the last three months, on a pro-rata basis, the following year.
- Certified loan amount: These amounts need to reflect the need or loan calculations you have completed. These amounts must also be within the U.S. federal annual loan amount and aggregate loan limits for the Federal Stafford loan certifications.
- Disbursement dates: Watch the American date format again (MM/DD/YY)! The loans should be fully disbursed within the loan period, and the first disbursement can be no more than 30 days before the start of the course. (Some first-year first-time borrower students may also be restricted to receiving their first loan amount 30 days after starting the course.)
When completing the paper applications rather than certifying online, please be sure to enter the school code and address information correctly on the form, which should be transcribed from the details on the MPN. For the majority of students using Sallie Mae International, the code is likely to be 833471, using AMS/Sallie Mae International for FFELP loans and 900909 is for most private loan applications.
Requesting eight-page SARs
Need to request an eight-page SAR for one of your U.S. borrowers? To request a complete eight-page SAR, please send a fax on university letterhead to the Foreign Schools SAR Request Team at the U.S. Department of Education.
SAR requests format instructions
- The request must be on the institution’s official letterhead (including the institution’s address). Please address your fax cover sheet to the attention of the Foreign Schools SAR Request Team and fax to +1 202-275-3486.
- The request must include the requesting official’s complete contact information:
a. First and last name
b. Official title
c. Telephone number
d. Fax number
e. Email address
- The following student information must also be provided on the request:
a. Student’s first and last name
b. Student’s Social Security number (SSN)
c. Student’s date of birth (month/day/year)
d. Appropriate year of completed FAFSA
e. The accompanying first page of the SAR provided by the student
Please submit your request in the proper format. Requests not received in the proper format will not be processed.
Follow-up inquiries should be directed to fsa.foreign.
schools.team@ed.gov. Email inquiries must not include Social Security numbers (SSNs).
P.O. Boxes and credit inquiries — Did you know?
Fair Isaac will no longer accept P.O. Boxes as the primary address for private loans for borrowers and cosigners. If a P.O. Box is used as the primary address, a denial code will be placed on the account and the credit decision will be coded as “pending” instead of “approved,” “denied,” or “eligible.” Once a physical address has been provided, the credit decision will be corrected with the appropriate decision. The U.S.A. Patriot Act requires borrowers and cosigners to provide at least one physical address before disbursing a loan.