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The Iowa College Student Aid Commission
Our mission is to advocate for, and provide a continuum of  services to support, Iowa students and families as they explore and finance educational opportunities beyond high school.

Recent Accomplishments:

• We provided Iowa students with more than $57.8 million in Iowa General Fund Appropriations for need-based scholarships, grants, work-study and other related programs. The Commission also actively pursues additional state funding for increased need-based aid awards.
• We reduced the cost of borrowing for students and parents who need federal student loans to help pay education expenses. The Commission saved Iowa families approximately $4.5 million during FY 2006 by paying a required federal default fee on Stafford and PLUS loans on behalf of borrowers.
• We partnered with the Iowa Department of Education and Iowa Student Loan Liquidity Corporation to provide Iowa Choices, a web-based career and decision making system, free of charge to all Iowa middle and high schools. The program helps Iowa students identify education and career goals and assists them in finding colleges and universities with programs that meet their needs.
• We developed new publications to better connect Iowa families to information and resources about career and college planning, as well as preparing and paying for college.
• We helped 925 borrowers rehabilitate $6.8 million in defaulted student loans.
• We saved taxpayer dollars through more efficient processes resulting in a 20.5% increase in rehabilitated loan sales, a 13.7% increase in FFELP borrower payments and a 16.8% increase in Partnership Loan Program collections over the previous year.
• We conducted surveys and published findings on higher education, ethnic diversity and other special studies useful to state policy makers.