New Guide Provides Roadmap on How to Pay for College, One of Life’s Biggest Challenges

WASHINGTON, April 14, 2005 - Millions of students and their parents will soon confront one of life's biggest challenges - how to pay for college.

Help is here. Loan to Learn, an EduCap Inc. student loan program, has released Demystifying Financial Aid: How it Works and How to Get Enough, a user-friendly toolkit that can be downloaded at www.loantolearn.com.

Over the last 20 years, college tuition has soared 267 percent, yet the amount of federal financial aid available per student has remained flat for more than a decade. In order to pay for tuition, which is rising at four times the rate of inflation, students and families need to be aware of all available financing options.

"Finding the right financial aid among the sea of options is intimidating and frustrating," said Catherine B. Reynolds, Chairman & CEO of EduCap. "We wrote this handbook so students and parents can find the option - or menu of options - that best fits their individual situations."

The 35-page guide contains comprehensive information on secondary education financing opportunities, including:

• Private student loans
• Federal student loans
• Financial aid forms and application processes
• Other loan options
• Financial aid planning timelines

The Loan to Learn® Web site also offers a financial aid primer, online applications for a variety of student loans, and tools to help students calculate the costs of various colleges and universities.

"College can be expensive, but the average return on investment for a college degree is 20 times the cost of the education," said Reynolds. "Careful planning and the right financial aid can give all students the opportunity to succeed in higher education without having to worry about limited funds."

Loan to Learn® was created by EduCap Inc. to offer unsecured private loan programs to fund higher education. Loan to Learn is committed to providing loan programs that work with the financial rhythms of each family and cover the complete cost of a college education.

For more information, visit www.loantolearn.com.

EduCap Inc., a Washington, D.C. non-profit organization, with a mission to promote an educated citizenry worldwide, pioneered the credit-based loan industry by creating the very first nationwide privately-funded loan program. EduCap Inc. has disbursed billions of dollars in education loans to students and their families since its founding nearly 20 years ago.