Help: Big mess resulting from trust of National Student Cl..

Maybe someone can offer some expertise or insight into my complicated
situation. I am sorry for the long post, but I hope some of you will
please take the time to read it.

Here is my situation. My anticipated graduation date from college was
1 May 2003. I ended up having to contract a class over the summer to
graduate because my school cancelled credit for the trip I took to
Europe because of the events in Iraq. So I was actually a halftime
student during the summer until 11 August 2003. Reporting enrollment
information to the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) for summer
term is optional, so my school never reported that I attended over the
summer. When NSC received the report for fall 2003 from my school, I
was not on it (because I had already graduated), so NSC did what they
call a "calculated withdrawal". This means that because the last
enrollment date in NSC's system for me was 1 May 2003, that they
recorded that I withdrew on that date. They did this without
notifying me or the school. They sent a report to all my loan lenders
on 1 October 2003 certifying that I had withdrawn on 1 May 2003.

In September 2003, I had already taken care of getting all the
appropriate forms completed to notify my lenders of my correct
enrollment dates. I verified that all the grace periods on my loans
had been adjusted to reflect the dates, and all were to end in
February 2003. Of course, the report from NSC in October made all my
lenders update their systems with the wrong information, and reverted
my grace periods back to ending in November.

Soon, my loans became due early, but I didn't notice them all right
away. I have three private loan lenders, as well as federal direct
loans. I noticed that one lender, ACS, had the wrong grace period
sometime in November 2003. After talking with them, I first became
aware of the "Clearinghouse", and I began trying to get the
information changed. I called my school several times. No one seemed
to know who was responsible for updating information in the
Clearinghouse. At least I got them to send another letter to ACS to
straighten things out temporarily.

In early January, I began the process of consolidating my federal
direct loans. But I got a surprise when I saw that my account was
about *60* days delinquent. I contacted Direct Loan Servicing, and
they informed me of the dates that they had received reports from NSC.
I looked up NSC on the Internet and called them, and they said that
the last information they had received from the school for me was in
spring 2003. I then learned that reporting summer term was optional.
NSC also told me that reports can only entered into their system in
chronological order, which meant my information was *locked*. I told
NSC that this is a huge problem since lenders are free to check the
Clearinhouse whenever they want, so this would be an ongoing problem
unless the information was corrected. Letters from my school would
not be enough. NSC called Direct Loan Servicing and confirmed that
this recurrent problem would exist. Finally, I learned about the
calculated withdrawal procedure.

Next I called the school and made them contact NSC to start getting
that information corrected. I finally got the person in charge of
updating the information. It took a week, with many many phone calls,
and we had to wait for a special person to get back to NSC's office so
that my infomation could be updated to be *correct*. But, this
infomation would not be available to lenders for at least another *30
days*. I couldn't believe the slowness of the system! By this time I
had less than two weeks to consolidate my federal loans within the
grace period. Consolidating within the grace period is important
because you get the lower grace period interest rates, which would go
up upon entering repayment. They normally recommed to consolidate a
month in advance so that things go through in time. The school had
sent two letters to Federal Direct Loans confirming my correct
enrollment dates, but of course they were not being accepted for one
reason or another. Time was wasting. So, in the meantime, I
processed a second In-School Deferment request, which had to be signed
by the school then sent to Direct Loan Servicing, and called to make
sure it was applied immediately. Thank God you can apply over the
phone and it is the application date that matters to establish the
interest rates, not the date the consolidation is completed. (At
least that's what a supervisor in the Direct Consolidation Dept.
assured me; the consolidation is still pending.)

No one wanted to accept fault for the incorrect information sent to my
lenders. My school said they weren't at fault because they were
unaware of the calculated withdrawal procedure, and because the
information they received from NSC is five inches thick. NSC doesn't
accept fault because they say it is the school's responsibility, and
is outlined in the agreement they have with the school. Everyone
depends on NSC, and when NSC doesn't work, nothing happens!

Now for my current problem. In early January when I found that my
Federal Direct Loans were recorded as delinquent, I also looked
through all my other loans, and found that Sallie Mae had started my
repayment period in January 2003. I supposed they had done this
because I took out a loan when I contracted the summer class, and on
the application wrote that I anticipated to graduate in July. But I
didn't finish the contracted course until August; I mean I was really,
truly enrolled half-time in August, not just graduating. So far my
school has sent at least three letters to Sallie Mae notifying them of
my enrollment as a half time student until August 2003. I have also
called Sallie Mae *many* times. They keep telling me that the letters
from my school do not contain the correct information, and when I
request a copy of the letters from Sallie Mae, they promise to fax it
to me, but never do! They will not listen to me because they insist
that they must wait for the report from NSC. In the meantime, my
account is approaching 45 days delinquency, at which time they will
report me and my coborrowers to the credit bureaus. My coborrowers
(parents) said that Sallie Mae was calling them every other day.
Finally, my coborrowers filed for a forbearance on the loan to prevent
the negative impact on their credit. I told Sallie Mae that they
can't just sit back and wait for my loan to become 45 days delinquent,
that they need to call the school or NSC. I explained that with all
the letters and calls they had received, that this should warrant some
special attention. But everyone was *very* unwilling to help, and
said that they don't call the schools, the schools call them. I can't
believe this! I don't know if Sallie Mae thinks I am a liar or what,
but if they would just make the effor to verify with NSC, they will
see that I am correct.

I can't prove anything on my own. only the school and NSC have the
authority to do that. I have called *everyone* numerous times to try
and make things happen, but nobody seems to budge. Yet, I am the one
who is penalized. This is so unjust. I have considered a lawsuit,
but I don't think that would get me anywhere. What can I do!?