Financial Aid Borrower Bill of Rights

The Student Borrower Bill of Rights* includes the following rights:

To unbiased advice about loans and lenders from the BCC Student Financial Services Office.
To choose the lender, even if the lender is not included on BCC's published lender list.
To know what criteria BCC uses to select lenders whose names it lists for student use.
To know whether the published lenders are paying BCC or the financial staff.
To know what benefits or rate discounts lenders offer, and whether those benefits or discounts will be made immediately available, or only after a certain number of consecutive timely payments
To know if a lender has agreed to sell its loans to another lender.
To know whether borrower benefits and discounts will continue if the loan is sold.
To know the interest rate for the loan before borrowings.
To exhaust federal borrowing options before turning to higher cost private loans.

(*Student Lending Accountability, Transparency and Enforcement Act adopted by the New York State Legislature in May 2007, and publicized by the Associated Press on May 24, 2007)