1. Name and Address of Reporting Person
   Fitzpatrick, Thomas J.
   11600 Sallie Mae Drive
   Reston, VA 20193
2. Issuer Name and Ticker or Trading Symbol
   SLM Corporation (SLM)
3. IRS or Social Security Number of Reporting Person (Voluntary)
4. Statement for Month/Year
   12/2002
5. If Amendment, Date of Original (Month/Year)
6. Relationship of Reporting Person(s) to Issuer (Check all applicable)
   ( ) Director                   ( ) 10% Owner
   (X) Officer (give title below) ( ) Other (specify below)
   President & COO
7. Individual or Joint/Group Filing (Check Applicable Line)
   (X) Form filed by One Reporting Person
   ( ) Form filed by More than One Reporting Person

TABLE I -- Non-Derivative Securities Acquired, Disposed of, or Beneficially Owned

+------------------------------+----------+----------+---------+--------------------------+--------------+-----------+------------+
|1. Title of Security          |2. Trans- |2A.Execu- |3. Trans-|4. Securities Acquired (A)|5. Amount of  |6. Owner-  |7. Nature   |
|                              |   action |   action |   action|   or Disposed of (D)     |Securities    |   ship    |   of In-   |
|                              |   Date   |   Date   |   Code  |                          |Beneficially  |   Form:   |   direct   |
|                              |          |          |         |                          |Owned         |   Direct  |   Bene-    |
|                              |  (Month/ |  (Month/ |         |                          |Following     |   (D) or  |   ficial   |
|                              |   Day/   |   Day/   |         +-----------+---+----------+   Year       |   Indirect|   Owner-   |
|                              |   Year)  |   Year)  |         |Amount     |A/D|Price     |              |   (I)     |   ship     |
+------------------------------+----------+----------+---------+-----------+---+----------+--------------+-----------+------------+
                                                                                           
Common Stock                                                                               309317         D
Phantom Stock Units                                                                        112184.37  D
Restricted Stock Units                                                                     50439.51       D





TABLE II -- Derivative Securities Acquired, Disposed of, or Beneficially Owned

+----------+--------+-------+-------+---------+-----------+---------------------+----------------+----------+-------+-------+------+
|1.        |2.      |3.     |3A.    |4.       |5.         |6.                   |7.              |8.        |9.     |10.    |11.   |
|          |        |       |       |         |           |                     |                |          |Number |Owner- |      |
|          |        |       |       |         |           |                     |                |          |of     |ship   |      |
|          |        |       |       |         |           |                     |                |          |Deriv- |Form of|      |
|          |        |       |       |         |           |                     |Title and Amount|          |ative  |Deriv- |      |
|          |        |       |       |         |           |                     |of Underlying   |          |Secur- |ative  |Nature|
|          |Conver- |Trans- |Execu- |         |Number of  |                     |Securities      |          |ities  |Secur- |of    |
|          |sion or |action |tion   |         |Derivative |Date Exercisable     +-------+--------+          |Benefi-|ity:   |In-   |
|          |Exercise|Date   |Date   |         |Securities |and Expiration Date  |       |Amount  |          |cially |Direct |direct|
|          |Price of|       |       |Transac- |Acquired(A)|(Month/Day/Year)     |       |or      |          |Owned  |(D) or |Bene- |
|Title of  |Deriv-  |(Month/|(Month/|tion Code|Disposed(D)+----------+----------+       |Number  |Price of  |       |In-    |ficial|
|Derivative|ative   |Day/   |Day/   |         +-----+-----+Date Exer-|Expira-   |       |of      |Derivative|at End |direct |Owner-|
|Security  |Security|Year)  |Year)  |         |(A)  |(D)  |cisable   |tion Date |Title  |Shares  |Security  |of Year|(I)    |ship  |
+----------+--------+-------+-------+---------+-----+-----+----------+----------+-------+--------+----------+-------+-------+------+
                                                                                   
Stock       $86      01/24/2 01/24/2 A         60000              01/24/2012 Common  600000   $86.0000   600000  D
Option               002     002               0                                 Stock
(Right to
buy)
Stock       $87.2    01/23/2 01/23/2 A         13225       01/23/2003 01/15/2011 Common  132252   $87.2000   132252  D
Option               002     002               2                                 Stock
(Right to
buy)

Explanation of Responses:


Includes units acquired under the Officer Deferred Compensation Plan.  Units are
settled in the Company's common stock.

The options are exercisable after price-vesting and time-vesting targets are met
and in any case on and after January 1, 2010 but no earlier than June 1, 2005.
For each one-third of the option grant, the price vesting targets are a set
precentage increase over the fair market value of the options on the date of
grant. The percentage targets are a 25 precent increase, a 33 percent increase
and a 50 precent increase, respectively, and must be sustained for five
consecutive trading days.



SIGNATURE OF REPORTING PERSON
/s/ Mary F. Eure (POA)

DATE
02/10/2003