While the new eligibility rules make Economic Hardship Deferment an option for more students this year, one change to the program is the loss of the debt-to-income ratio pathway (i.e., Condition 6) as of July 2009.

With graduation fast approaching, we want to remind you that the Economic Hardship Deferment program has new eligibility rules in place, allowing more students to qualify for the program.

With graduation just around the corner, are your students ready for repayment? You can help them understand their repayment options with an in-depth presentation that helps students create a tailored repayment plan and find ways to save money.

This fall brought sweeping changes to the student loan industry, yet many students don’t know that these changes will have a big impact on their loans. To help them understand what’s at stake and what steps they should take, T.H.E. has created a new lender-neutral presentation.

If you have students who are requesting additional federal loan funds for the 2007/2008 school year, T.H.E. reminds you of the option to simply increase the existing federal loan instead of having students apply for a new loan.

Our three most popular brochures – Smooth Sailing, Blue Skies, and Solid Ground – are getting an update. After being integrated into the new “Smart Choices” financial literacy series, the brochures will feature the lender-neutral stamp and will no longer carry the T.H.E. logo. We will still acknowledge the brochures as being printed and produced by T.H.E.

You can view the updated versions of these brochures here:

• Smooth Sailing offers students practical ways to organize their money and manage their expenses.
• Solid Ground breaks down basic credit concepts and highlights what students need to know about credit scores in easy-to-understand terms.
• Blue Skies covers what questions students should ask a lender before they sign for a loan and explains what’s behind the different incentives lenders offer.

To order any of these brochures, go to our Tools and Resources page and enter your order. Once the e-mail automatically generates, simply provide the name of the resource(s), the quantity desired, due date, shipping address and contact information. We’ll do the rest.

Some of you contacted us to ask why we are no longer featured in the Greentree Gazette’s Student Loan Buying Guide. One of the reasons is because listing is no longer free and we believe that as a nonprofit, we need to be fiscally responsible in all aspects of our business. We also feel that students don’t use Greentree Gazette as a resource. We will keep you informed through other means on all T.H.E. developments.

‘Tis the season for New Year’s resolutions — and we’re doing our best to accomplish ours right away.

We’re getting into the spirit of the New Year by making improvements to our T.H.E. loan programs. As we told you last month, our Grad PLUS terms just got better, and now we’re pleased to announce better pricing for private loans — and more access to them — for undergrads.

For starters, when the cosigners for undergraduate students have excellent credit, the student will be rewarded with better pricing: as low as LIBOR plus 3%, with a 1% repayment bonus, for a net effective repayment interest rate of LIBOR plus 2% (please visit www.theloanprogram.org for terms and conditions).