Sallie Mae Reaches Out to Higher Education Community and Students in Wake of Hurricane Katrina

Sallie Mae Reaches Out to Higher Education Community and Students in Wake of Hurricane Katrina

Company to Provide up to $15 Million in Emergency Financing

RESTON, Va., Sept. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Sallie Mae today announced its initial efforts to assist the higher education community, students and borrowers impacted by Hurricane Katrina.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20030617/SLMLOGO-a )

Sallie Mae is making available interest-free emergency financing of up to $15 million available to students who have applied for or received Sallie Mae loans at schools that are closed indefinitely due to Hurricane Katrina (see list below). These zero-fee loans of between $500 and $1,000 per student will help cover living and other education-related expenses. The loans will feature no interest through June 1, 2006, and then revert to prime rate -- currently 6.5 percent. Information is available at http://www.salliemae.com/katrina and at Sallie Mae's hurricane relief hot line 1-877-HELP-040 or 1-877-435-7040.

Sallie Mae will also grant automatic payment relief to student loan customers in the areas affected by the storm. This will allow students to discontinue making payments on their loans. The company will also extend the same payment relief terms authorized by the U.S. Department of Education for federally guaranteed loans to its private loan customers. Customers who have other questions about their student loan accounts should contact the company toll-free at 1-888-2-SALLIE (1-888-272-5543) or log on to the Manage Your Loans section of http://www.salliemae.com/.

In addition, Sallie Mae is reaching out to closed schools across the Gulf Coast region to offer communications resources such as phone and Web support to help these institutions and their students remain in contact. Also, The Sallie Mae Fund, a charitable organization sponsored by Sallie Mae, has made a donation to Scholarship America's Disaster Relief Fund for Post-Secondary Education. This fund will provide grants to higher education institutions to cover education-related expenses of low-income students affected by Hurricane Katrina.

SLM Corporation (NYSE:SLM), commonly known as Sallie Mae, is the nation's No. 1 paying-for-college company, managing more than $116 billion in student loans for 8 million borrowers. Sallie Mae was originally created in 1972 as a government-sponsored entity (GSE) and terminated its corporate ties to the federal government in 2004. The company remains the country's largest originator of federally insured student loans. Through its specialized subsidiaries and divisions, Sallie Mae also provides debt management services as well as business and technical products to a range of business clients, including colleges, universities and loan guarantors. More information is available at http://www.salliemae.com/. SLM Corporation and its subsidiaries are not sponsored by or agencies of the United States of America.

The Sallie Mae Fund, a charitable organization sponsored by Sallie Mae, achieves its mission -- to increase access to a postsecondary education for America's students -- by supporting programs and initiatives that help open doors to higher education, preparing families for their investment, and bridging the gap when no one else can. For more information, visit http://www.thesalliemaefund.org/.

The following schools are closed indefinitely based on the latest information received as of Sept. 2, 2005:

Louisiana:

Southeastern Louisiana University, Hammond
Nichols State University, Thibodaux
Dillard University, New Orleans
LSU Health Sciences Center, New Orleans
Loyola University, New Orleans
Tulane University, New Orleans
University of New Orleans
Xavier University, New Orleans
Nunez Community College, All branches
Delgado Community College, New Orleans
Louisiana Technical College campuses in Metairie, New Orleans, Slidell,
Bogalusa and Harvey
Southern University New Orleans
Ayers Institute/Diesel Driving Academy

Mississippi

Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, all three branches
Pearl River Community College
University of Southern MS
William Carey College
East Central Community College
Jones County Community College
Alcorn State
Tougaloo College

Alabama

University of Mobile

Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20030617/SLMLOGO-a
AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org/
PRN Photo Desk photodesk@prnewswire.com
Source: Sallie Mae

CONTACT: Tom Joyce of Sallie Mae, +1-703-984-5610,
tom.joyce@salliemae.com

Web site: http://www.salliemae.com/
http://www.thesalliemaefund.org/

Company News On-Call: http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/827187.html

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