The brainchild of Tanuj Parikh, Nimay Mehta and Joshua Kushner, the site was launched in May to help out students in need of financial aid.

At the moment, loans are limited to Harvard students, but plans are under way to expand to other institutions in the fall semester.

"The Obama administration is seeking to remove private banks from the federal education lending systems," Parikh notes in a blog entry on UniThrive.org. "We do believe this is a step in the right direction; anything that better aligns the incentives of lenders with student needs is a positive thing."

Until the system is reformed, students in need can turn to UniThrive, whose mission is to "connect students and alumni in meaningful financial relationships for the sake of improving students' chances of success in life," the founders say on their Web site.

For a new generation of students who have grown up in the Internet age, UniThrive will be quite easy to use.

Here's how it works: Students in need of aid can create a profile on the Web site and list their needs anywhere from $500-$2,000; alumni have access to the profiles and can sign on to assist the students.

"Our model is multiple-to-one, meaning an unlimited number of alumni can pledge to lend to your loan request until the full amount requested has been met," the founders say. "At 0 percent interest, these loans represent the best offering in the student loan market"

In addition, students form lasting relationships with their alumni lenders.

On their part the student-recipients are expected to update their lenders regularly and start repaying them the January following their graduation. Students sign a contract agreeing to pay back the loan; if they default, it will be reported to credit bureaus.

"Money lent to students never reaches their hands, thereby precluding the chance for fraud," the founders say. "UniThrive will transfer funds directly from alumni bank accounts and/or credit cards to the tuition office at universities.''

The idea for UniThrive evolved on Harvard's campus. "At Harvard, a school with an enormous endowment and a comprehensive and generous financial aid program, many of my classmates struggled financially because of the student lending industry's inefficient and sometimes exploitative model," Kushner writes in his blog on Huffington Post.

"I was fortunate to have parents who could provide my tuition costs, but I often found many of my peers forced to compromise their college experience. Many, even those on financial aid, were saddled with debt and were forced to forgo opportunities in public and community service in order to meet their financial obligations. The juxtaposition of wealth and need at Harvard was impossible to ignore."

And so, Kushner and his pals set out to "fix" the problem. According to the UniThrive blog, by early July, two of the eight pilot students requesting loans were "good to go."

Meanwhile, Kushner says the trio is inundated with "hundreds of e-mails from students and parents asking if and when we plan to expand."

To that, their answer is: "We are piloting at Harvard because it is the institution we are most familiar with, being Harvard students ourselves. We are working hard to expand at a rate that is both viable and healthy."