Higher Ed Roundup: Week of March 3 – March 7
Cuomo Targets Sallie Mae Again
Truth in Tuition Advances in Maryland
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Cuomo Targets Sallie Mae Again
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is once again investigating student loan practices at Sallie Mae — this time targeting a private loan product that the company markets directly to students and their families. The student loan giant that it had received a subpoena from Cuomo’s office on Feb. 11 asking for more details about its . Sallie Mae is just the latest loan provider to be caught up into Cuomo’s probe into the marketing of direct-to-consumer private loans. In October, his office to 33 private-loan providers, including Nelnet, JPMorgan Chase, and Student Loan Xpress. At the time, “misleading and deceptive tactics to entice young borrowers seeking college loans.”
This is not the first time Sallie Mae has drawn unwanted scrutiny over these loans. Last fall, that the lender had filed Freedom of Information Act requests in several states demanding public college systems to provide contact information on their students so that the company could market private loans directly to them. Soon after our item appeared, its demands. Also in the fall, ,” a move that ran contrary to the company’s pledge to encourage students to exhaust their federal loan eligibility before taking out more costly private loans
Truth in Tuition Advances in Maryland
Four years after it was , Maryland lawmakers are now considering adopting their own Truth in Tuition plan. Maryland Delegate Heather Mizeur has introduced in the state house that would Truth in Tuition plans, favors, are gaining steam at statehouses and colleges across the country, including George Washington University and the University of Minnesota. A recent poll found that 77 percent of Maryland residents support the idea. Mizeur, who says the certainty will help ensure that more students finish college.