NEWS: Who is Working Your Financial Aid Helpline?

CULTURE: Who is Working Your Financial Aid Helpline?

Because if you don’t know, you might want to find out.

I think it’s just a wee bit odd that a company who stands to make money off of students would represent themselves as a student’s school and give them advice about a subject that could lead to them purchasing that company’s products. There’s a term for that, isn’t there? What was it… something about interests and conflict. God, I hate these mental blocks. Think, ‘Brosa, THINK!!!

Oh yeah! Conflict of interest!

More troubling is that Texas Tech is not the only school to outsource their loan questions to loan companies and that Nelnet is not the only company to offer this service. Another loan company that’s pretending they’re not a loan company on the phone is Sallie Mae. I owe Sallie Mae more money than it is reasonably prudent to disclose here. Interestingly enough, that admission may make people who are reading this article question the impartiality of my statements about Sallie Mae. See how this conflict of interest stuff works? Wacky!

Anyway, some people seem to have no problem with it.

Try and follow that logic: She figured students would tell her if Nelnet was pushing people towards Nelnet products, but students have no idea that Nelnet is the one doing the pushing. Genius.

Subrosa was born near Wayne State. True story.

I would have no problem with this if they weren't identifying as college officials. That's just fucking ridiculous.

so... are they doing anything wrong? or are they suspected of wrong doing?

i also am sallie mae's bitch. after 7 years, im almost down to a third of what i originally owed.

I think they're doing something wrong. While I don't know that they're breaking any laws offhand (unless it can be shown that they actually are pushing students toward their products), the colleges employing them certainly seem to be breaking an ethical duty to their students. They are paying someone to pretend to be them and take advantage of those students' trust. That's pretty despicable in my mind.

I feel like colleges are really becoming more businesses than they are educational institutions. Which is not a good thing, because there are so few career options without a college degree anymore.

Same here, every month I get phone call after phone call when I make my payment. I inquired to one of the operators as to why they ALWAYS call me to make sure I have paid and she admitted that none of their computer systems are connected to each other therefore if you happen to be one day late with a payment you can expect to get a phone call from anywhere between three to as many as eight DIFFERENT "customer service reps". I'm not exaggerating, I got 2 phone calls a day for a week from eight different people all asking about a payment I had already made the week before. It's absolutely ludicrous.

Like Rudi said all of the educational institutions are nothing but business' and are trying to disguise that fact so that they can make even more money off of the people who do not investigate them.

Not necessarily. Especially if you take on exams such as Series 7, Series 63, Real Estate License etc ....

I worked backwards, working full-time in the corporate world right out of high school. I took classes only when necessary - in instances where I couldn't advance by merely taking a test.

My biggest plunge into College will take place in a few years, when I take courses to aid in my attainment of my CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) license.

A College Degree can certainly open doors, but I know many people with BA and even MA degrees who are employed in positions that don't require a college degree.

If you're interested in a career in Education, Medicine, or Law, then a college degree is definitely something to strive for however.

Colleges are far too costly, and student loan costs are on the rise. Quite sad that our government doesn't follow the model of nations such as India, where a college education is free to all citizens.

It would put us in a much better place if America provided free college to all. I often imagine what our country would be like if we paid young men and women to go to college instead of paying them to join the military.

Hey, at least they're not doing really bad stuff, like having university financial aid offers owning stock in lending companies.

I can't wait to get out of school and start paying off my 150,000 in loans! Yea!

High five!

I got so sick of people callling me at one point. Some guy got so mad at me one time cause I told him I might as well be paying the mob back money at those interest rates.
If you can don't deal with Sallie Mae at all.

Being poor is so mid-90's. Being poor and in debt is where it's at!

I've often wondered if I could take the maximum student loan every semester for a few years, tuck the money away someplace, then move to South America and default...

Anyway, the only way I'm willing to interact with student aid offices anymore is in person. At least then you can stand and talk to them until they provide a satisfactory answer to your questions. Financing my education has been one of the most frustrating aspects of college. Not only does it feel like they're ripping me off with the endless fees on top of ever expanding tuitions, they can't even be bothered to make it convenient.

A friend of mine (who just failed out of pharmacy school) is doing a version of this. He's from Canada and if he can't get into another school soon he'll take the money left over (he takes the max out every year too) and head home. Crazy bastard.

Subrosa was born near Wayne State. True story.

Tallboy used to live by Wayne State and needs fill out his finacial aid forms.

Weird.

To some extent, the price of college is so high because of the "expected value" of college, and low interest rates infusing almost free money into the system. It's basically a lot like the housing market.

Im in college right now, and I'd say it's a suckers market right now. I only go because I pay about 2k a semester after scholarships. Otherwise, i'd probably do the community college thing, then transfer to a 4 year with most of the boring classes out of the way

just checking. it certainly is unethical, but its not currently illeagal?

aside from the deception, though, theres not a whole lot that can go wrong with a student loan, though right? its not like they can sell 'subprime loans' like theyve been doing in the housing markets, and the rates of interest are some of the lowest; kept low by the gov'mnt.

the most they can do is tell you to consolidate now! pay only interest for two years! am i wrong? no offense to 'brosa; its a good article. and good luck paying off those first few years, theyre the worst!

Three cheers for capitalism!!

Especially for those who study culture, the humanities, and arts.

But I hear that Wall Street is getting hip to high-bid art auctions, so maybe there's hope after all.

I had something of a paranoid dread of student loans, so I took a very light course load (and an extra two and a half years to graduate) so that I could pay my own tuition expenses. After the stories I'm hearing here, I think I'm glad I did.