prepGATE Terminates Private Education Loans

Since 1996, First Marblehead and Bank of America have offered the prepGATE K-12 Education Loan Program to provide families with a k-12 private loan option to help them to afford the cost of sending their child to a private k-12 school.

On April 17th, Bank of America announced that they will be focusing their student lending strategy on the federal student loan program and discontinuing all private loan products for the coming academic year to provide a more consistent experience for their customers. Please be assured that all prepGATE applications submitted for a credit decision on or before April 18, 2008 will be processed without interruption.

As a result of Bank of America's decision, schools should take the following steps immediately to provide a positive customer experience:

Remove the prepGATE loan program from any private loan lender list provided at the school.


Remove any web links to the prepGATE loan program from the school's website.


Remove all prepGATE loan program marketing collateral from the Admissions Office.

In addition, we will encourage families who have not yet received private loan funding for this season to consult with your school to identify additional loan options.
We appreciate your commitment to providing families with the opportunity to enrich their child's lives through a private education.