A Preferred Lender List: How And Why It’s Constructed On Today’s Campus

Abstract

Mention ‘preferred lender lists’ in a room full of financial aid administrators or lenders, or college students or policy makers, and you’ll evoke an array of responses from contempt to defensiveness to downright weariness. Preferred lender lists are a ‘hot-button’ issue in student lending,” writes Justin Draeger, NASFAA assistant director for communications in the March issue of The Greentree Gazette. “Accusations, some of them potentially slanderous, are being reported in the media about the relationships between schools and lenders. It’s my experience that most schools methodically compile preferred lender lists year after year to help their students answer the question - ‘which lender is right for me?’ In doing so, school personnel use one of three strategies: weeding out, ranking and scoring, or a comprehensive blend of the two.

You can read the complete March 2007article on the NASFAA Web site where it has been posted with permission from The Greentree Gazette.