About Meteor

Meteor is a collaborative effort within the financial aid community to demystify and aggregate access to student loan information. Meteor provides open, easy-to-understand, real-time details that will help colleges enrich financial literacy as well as support students as they graduate and navigate the repayment process. Participating colleges and students are able to gain secure and online access to Meteor through the Student Self-Service portal on the school Web site, ensuring ease of use, convenience, and protection of sensitive student data.

Meteor History

The concept for Meteor – a network to provide aggregated financial aid information to schools and students – was developed in the spring of 2000 by executives from the nation's guaranty agencies and other student loan providers at a meeting sponsored by the National Council of Higher Education Loan Programs (NCHELP).

During the first quarter of 2001, a proof-of-concept prototype for Meteor was developed and implemented by Instructional Media & Magic (IM&M), in collaboration with the National Student Clearinghouse. In July 2001, the first Meteor Advisory Team was convened and in April 2002, the first release of Meteor software was made available to financial aid professionals.

Since its release, many financial aid providers have implemented Meteor, which has won several awards for its innovative contribution to higher education. The Meteor Advisory Team has continued to work with the industry to introduce new features and custom applications, including extending access to the Meteor network to students and borrowers, lenders, and customer service staff.

In 2004, real time data from Meteor was integrated into "Mapping Your Future," the free online exit counseling service provided by the nation's guaranty agencies. This led to the development of several custom debt management implementations.

In 2008, access to Meteor's real time data was integrated into the National Student Clearinghouse's LoanLocator service. LoanLocator provides financial aid professionals at colleges and universities with a comprehensive source of non-commercial student loan information, including data on newly originated loans and a complete participant list.

In February 2011, Meteor was acquired by the National Student Clearinghouse, which is committed to preserving Meteor as an open source, timely, student-specific financial aid resource.

Meteor Sponsors

Meteor is sponsored by education finance organizations that provide support for its ongoing development, promotion, and acceptance.

Great Lakes Higher Education Guaranty Corporation
Illinois Student Assistance Commission
Kentucky Higher Education Assistance Authority
Louisiana Office of Student Financial Assistance
Michigan Higher Education Assistance Authority
National Student Loan Program, Inc.

Northstar Education Services
Rhode Island Higher Education Assistance Authority
Sallie Mae, Inc.
Student Loan Guarantee Foundation of Arkansas
United Student Aid Funds

Meteor Advisory Team

The Meteor Advisory Team is comprised of representatives from the initiative's corporate sponsors. The team is responsible for all aspects of the Meteor Project, including:

Defining business requirements
Assisting with software design
Identifying technology architecture
Testing Meteor software
Facilitating Meteor software implementation
Conducting training

Subcommittees also work on specific project tasks, such as security, privacy, and authentication and technology. Advisory team members are appointed by Meteor sponsor organizations.

The current Meteor Advisory Team organizations are:

Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation
Kentucky Higher Education Assistance Authority
Mapping Your Future
Michigan Higher Education Student Loan Authority
Montana Guaranteed Student Loan Program
Northstar Education Services
Rhode Island Higher Education Assistance Authority
Sallie Mae
Student Loan Guarantee Foundation of Arkansas
Texas Guaranteed
USA Funds

Meteor Data Providers

A data provider is an entity that holds financial aid data on students and borrowers, which it provides at no charge to the Meteor Network. Any entity that has financial aid data regarding a student/borrower can be a data provider. The following organizations currently provide data to the Meteor Network:

American Education Services (Guaranty, Graduate Services and AES Servicing)
Finance Authority of Maine
Georgia Higher Education Assistance Corporation
Great Lakes Educational Loan Services, Inc.
Louisiana Office of Student Financial Assistance
Iowa College Student Aid Commission
Michigan Guaranty Agency
Montana Guaranteed Student Loan Program
National Student Clearinghouse
Northwest Education Loan Association
Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education
Rhode Island Higher Education Assistance Authority
Sallie Mae
Student Loan Guarantee Foundation of Arkansas
United Student Aid Funds

Meteor Access Providers

A Meteor access provider hosts the Meteor software on its Web site in order to provide its users with access to Meteor data. Any Title IV participant that can provide an OPEID is eligible to become a Meteor access provider. These organizations include schools, guarantors, lenders, servicers, and secondary markets.

Meteor access is available on the Web sites of the following organizations:

American Education Services Guaranty
Great Lakes Educational Loan Services, Inc.
Louisiana Office of Student Financial Assistance
Mapping Your Future
National Student Clearinghouse
Northstar Education Services
Northwest Education Loan Association
Rhode Island Higher Education Assistance Authority
Sallie Mae
United Student Aid Funds

Meteor Demo

Our interactive Meteor demo* shows the type of financial aid data available to users at colleges and universities. (Samples of the screens displayed to the other user types are available in our Meteor documentation.)

*Your browser's pop-up blocking must be turned off to use our demo. Static sample data is used to demonstrate Meteor's functionality. The live Meteor application provides users with real-time financial aid data.

Terms of Use

No reproduction, distribution, or transmission of the copyrighted materials at this site is permitted without the written permission of the National Student Clearinghouse.

See how Student Self-Service with Meteor works