Press Releases

American Education Services Announces The $20,000 Lighten Your Loan Sweepstakes^sm
Helps Students and Recent Grads Repay Student Loans

Harrisburg, PA (October 22, 2007) - American Education Services (AES) announces The $20,000 Lighten Your Loan Sweepstakes^sm, an innovative initiative created to assist borrowers by alleviating their student loan debt.

The $20,000 Lighten Your Loan Sweepstakes^sm is part of AES’ nationally recognized public service campaign, YouCanDealWithIt.com, which emphasizes the importance of repaying student loans, the long-term implications of default, and the importance of overall debt management and financial responsibility.

“Most of today’s students are finding that their dreams of higher education are unobtainable without some form of educational loans, which places them in debt upon entering the real world,” said AES Interim President and CEO James Preston. “We’ve held this sweepstakes twice thus far and each has proven incredibly successful. Not only do four winners find their debt considerably lighter, every entrant finds useful debt management and loan repayment information on YouCanDealWithIt.com while entering the sweepstakes. So, in a way, every entrant is a winner.”

AES’ Lighten Your Loan Sweepstakes includes four prizes: $10,000, $5,000 and (two) $2,500 FFELP loan payments to be made toward each winner’s student loan balance. The sweepstakes will run from October 15, 2007 through December 15, 2007 and is open to all AES customers holding a FFELP loan guaranteed by AES.

Students and recent graduates can enter for a chance to win at YouCanDealWithIt.com. There is a limit of one entry per day per student loan borrower. Bonus entries will be awarded when a contestant refers a friend who also enters the sweepstakes. The four winners will be drawn at random in January 2008.

YouCanDealWithIt.com was launched over eight years ago in an effort to educate students on debt management and loan repayment and ultimately lower the number of student loan defaults. The nationally recognized campaign has contributed to AES' all-time low cohort default rate of 2.9 percent for the 2005 cohort year, which is the most recent reporting timeframe. The cohort default rate measures the percentage of borrowers who have defaulted on their student loans within 12 to 24 months of entering repayment. The AES rate of 2.9 percent marks a 24 percent decrease from the 2004 cohort rate of 3.8 percent.