Responding to hundreds of complaints from college financial-aid administrators, Princeton Review has revised its Web site to clarify that MyRichUncle, the controversial student-loan company, has not formed partnerships with colleges profiled on the site.
On Thursday afternoon, the Web site replaced Chase with MyRichUncle as the “partner lender” in the “Scholarships & Financial Aid” section of each institution’s profile page. By Thursday evening, the wording on each page had been changed to read: “Princeton Review’s Partner Lender: MyRichUncle.”
In a letter to financial-aid administrators posted on several e-mail lists on Friday morning, Princeton Review’s vice president for publishing, Robert J. Franek, said that his company had not intended to imply that MyRichUncle had a deal with specific colleges. He noted that Princeton Review, a test-prep and admissions-services company, had become a partner of other lender advertisers in the past; indeed, until Thursday afternoon, the Web site listed Chase as the “partner lender” on each profile page.
But the change did not satisfy many financial-aid administrators, several of whom contacted Princeton Review and ask for the link to the lender to be removed from their profile entirely.
“I cannot believe that the Princeton Review finds changing a few words acceptable,” wrote one financial-aid administrator in a posting on an e-mail list for the profession. “It is very clear to me that students and parents looking at this site will think that this lender is one the school endorses and uses. ... In my opinion, the Princeton Review just reduced its credibility to zero.”
Another aid administrator who posted an e-mail comment suggested that his colleagues stop responding to Princeton Review’s surveys.
Seeking to quell the firestorm on Friday evening, Princeton Review moved the link to MyRichUncle from the Scholarships section of the profile pages to a stand-alone box in the righthand navigation bar. The box reads: “Princeton Review Featured Partner: Learn More About Student Loans From MyRichUncle.”
Raza Kahn, president of MyRichUncle, said he was surprised at the uproar, given that no one complained when Chase and other lenders were previously listed as the “partner lender” on colleges’ profile pages.
“Obviously we raised some challenges about how the industry worked that have really incensed administrators, so they don’t want MRU to be in any way associated with their financial-aid programs,” he said.
MyRichUncle alienated many financial-aid administrators last summer, when it published an advertisement accusing them of taking “kickbacks” and “payola” from lenders in exchange for inclusion on their “preferred-lender lists.”
