Sallie Mae - From Government Agency To Publicly Traded Company | College and University

By AazdakAlisimo
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Student loans make higher education a possibility for millions of people. If you are planning to use student loans to fund your high education, there is one company that will quickly come to the forefront for your efforts. Sallie Mae is that company.

Sallie Mae is the largest student loan company in the United States and probably the world. It is managing close to 130 billion dollars in student loan debt owed by more than ten million students or former students.

The history of the Student Loan Marketing Association, better known as Salllie Mae, is an odd one. It was originally a government agency of a sort created in 1972 to administer and guarantee federal student loans.

Through the next 32 years, Sallie Mae did its job in a manner that can only be called a smashing success. Millions of people went to college and graduate school that otherwise would not have. It is as simple as that and out country is the better for it.

After two and half decades, a decision was made that would change Sallie Mae for ever. It was privatized. The transition from non-government agency took seven years. In 2004, it was complete and the stock of Sallie Mae was available to all.

Having gone private, Sallie Mae has evolved from a benevolent government agency to a bottom line watching public entity with shareholders to keep happy. This has resulted in a change of attitude and more than a few controversies.

Just last year, there was a proposal to take Sallie Mae private. This would have put the company decisions behind closed doors. Criticism was immense and pressure was applied to the deal which ultimately broke down.

The company has also been roundly criticized for its collection practices. To say they are aggressive is an understatement. The company is known for trying to call not only borrowers, but non-borrowers to try to pressure repayment on loans.

Sallie Mae has also been pressuring universities to turn over information on students pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act. Universities have balked and the bad publicity has resulted in Sallie Mae stepping back for now.

So, how should one view Sallie Mae these days? Well, it is still the number one source of funding for college students by far, so one can only criticize it so far.

About the Author

Aazdak Alisimo writes about student loans for USStudentLoanCompanies.com.

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