The new editions  of the Postsecondary Guide of Maine and Financial Aid Tool Kit have been mailed to colleges, high schools, students, adult education centers and others.  For additional copies of these or any other FAME publication, go to FAME's Publication Order page and submit your request today. 

 

 

 

For more information see our press release from September 20. 

 

Despite the challenging economy and national trends to the contrary, FAME is pleased to announce a significant reduction in its FY 2008 cohort default rate.  According to data recently released by the U.S. Department of Education, FAME's student loan cohort default rate fell to 5.9 percent for FY 2008, compared to 7.9 percent during FY 2007.  This represents the largest decline among all guarantors nationwide.  This most recent cohort default rate is well below the FY 2008 national average of 7.0 percent.   FAME's lower than average default rate is the result of successful outreach and default prevention services that were created to support Maine students and borrowers.  In July 2008, FAME expanded its default prevention efforts to include an early intervention program that focuses on "at-risk" borrowers.  Through this program, borrowers are contacted by phone during their grace period and are provided with important loan repayment information, including repayment assistance for borrowers who are experiencing economic hardship.  Since the program's inception, nearly 10,000 Maine students have been enrolled in the early intervention program.  For more information on FAME's default prevention efforts, please contact Mary Dyer.

 

For more information on the Default Rates, see our press release from September 22.

 

The notice of the proposed 2011-2012 draft versions of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and the Student Aid Report (SAR) has been posted in the Federal Register. Interested persons may review the draft application materials online and submit comments on the draft application materials on or before November 15.

 

EPIC has a new feature to assist you if you have forgotten your EPIC user name or password and/or either has expired.  At the EPIC login screen, just below the LOGIN button, click on the link Forgot your user name or password?  Once you have completed the required steps, a secure email will be sent to you within a few minutes.  The email will be from noreply@famemaine.com with the subject line of:  Secure Message from the Finance Authority of Maine (FAME).
 
To obtain your EPIC password you must open the secure email sent by FAME.  When you open the email you will see a link to VIEW MESSAGE.  This link will open to a log in screen.  Your user name for secure email is your full email address as above. 
 
If you have never used our secure email process before the screen will have your email address automatically populated in the User Name field.  Below the User Name field you should see two fields; one for Password, and the other to Confirm Password.  You must create a password that will be used to open this and any future secure email messages you may receive from FAME. Your secure email password is any password you choose to establish, so long as it contains both letters and numbers and is at least eight characters long.  If you have already established a FAME secure email password but cannot seem to make it work, there is a feature for you to reset your password by clicking on the Forgot your password? link at the bottom of the email.  If you experience problems resetting your secure email password, please call customer service at 1-800-228-3734, option 1 and a customer service representative can reset it for you.
 
Please note that your secure email user name is not the same as your EPIC user name.  If you have forgotten your EPIC user name, you can request your EPIC user name the same way you reset your EPIC password described above in the second paragraph.