FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Michelle Quivey
212-645-6900

Sessions.edu Partners with Sallie Mae to Provide Career Training Loans

NEW YORK, N.Y., July 14, 2000 - Sessions.edu, (www.sessions.edu), the first online school of new media, has partnered with Sallie Mae, the leading provider of funds for educational loans, to offer its students private education loans of $1,000 and up.

Sallie Mae has only recently begun accepting online schools, and because of the stringent requirements for acceptance, online schools make up only 5% of the 3,000 approved schools. In order to be approved, schools must be well established with a good credit history, have a projected revenue of at least $500,000 a year and have enrolled at least 100 students.

Loans from Sallie Mae, combined with low course prices, will make Sessions.edu more accessible to students nationwide. Sallie Mae's approval rate for students is extremely high -- over 70 percent -- and qualified students have up to 15 years to repay loans. Within two weeks of partnering with Sallie Mae, more than 30 students applied for an excess of $60,000 in student loans. Sessions.edu students can directly apply for loans by logging on to salliemae@sessions.edu.

"In an increasingly technological workplace, there is a growing need for new media and web-based skills," Sessions.edu CEO Morten Sohlberg says. "I'm thrilled that now, by partnering with Sallie Mae, we can make it possible for more students to acquire these essential skills."

Sallie Mae is a for-profit company that has been providing federally guaranteed student loans for over 27 years. The company currently owns and manages student loans for 5.3 million borrowers.

Sessions.edu launched its online curriculum in 1998, and has sold over 3,600 courses to over 1,200 students in the last year. It is the first school of visual communications and new media to provide a campus and faculty based entirely on the Internet, which means students can take classes anytime and anywhere. It offers students training in graphic design, web design, advertising design, multimedia design and e-commerce directly from their desktops. Sessions.edu is currently being used both by individuals who want to gain or improve their Internet related skills, and companies looking for cost-effective and time-efficient means to train their employees.