As part of a 5-year evaluation of the Direct Loan and the Federal Family Education Loan programs, 19 institutions of higher education participating in the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan Program were visited to examine the diversity of approaches used by schools in planning for and implementing the Direct Loan program. The schools included public and private two- and four-year institutions and proprietary schools. Fifteen schools were Direct Loan participants in 1995-96, while the other four planned to enter the program in 1996-97. Major findings indicated: (1) that while two-thirds of the schools described the transition to direct loans as relatively easy, all expressed concern about the proposed congressional cap on direct lending; (2) schools used a variety of computer environments to implement the program; (3) schools reported satisfaction with the specific steps of implementing direct lending; (5) satisfaction with training and manuals provided by the Department of Education was mixed; (6) program implementation costs ranged from $3,000 to $80,000 per school; and (7) schools that used the Department's regional offices were satisfied with their services. Ongoing issues were identified in the areas of computer systems, loan processing, training, counseling, and customer service. (DB)