If you attended a for-profit college and were misled to enroll, you could be eligible for for-profit student loan forgiveness options like Borrower Defense to Repayment. Over the last several years, over $1 billion in student loan debt has been forgiven for students who attended for-profit colleges or other schools that potentially misled students.The reasons for student loan forgiveness include borrower defense to repayment claims, closed schools, and other lawsuits.The Biden Administration has forgiven the most amount of student loan debt of any president, with several recent announcements helping over 200,000 borrowers.However, figuring out if you qualify for loan forgiveness can be challenging. Here is the list of colleges that qualify for student loan forgiveness under borrower defense to repayment, the latest Sweet v. Cardona settlement, or other loan cancellation agreements with the Department of Education. You can also see this guide on How To Get Help For Your Loans If You Were Defrauded By Your College.
Borrower Defense Student Loan Forgiveness List
There are over 155 schools and colleges that potentially qualify for student loan forgiveness under various plans and settlements – the most recent being the proposed settlement of Sweet v. Cardona. However, many of the “owner” names don’t match the college names. We’re working to put the individual school names here on this list.Note: Not all students for all years/schools will qualify. You still must meet the criteria for either borrower defense or closed school discharge. However, for some schools, all borrowers will qualify.For example, Corinthian Colleges entered into a settlement, but the actual names of the schools are Everest, WyoTech, and others. As such, borrowers may not know if they qualify for programs.For the list below, we list the parent company name, and then the list of affiliated schools. Some of these colleges may have previously been for-profit, but have since changed to non-profit educational institutions.
How To Get Loan Forgiveness
There are two main programs that help here:Borrower Defense To Repayment provides for the cancellation of a borrower’s federal student loans when the college violated federal or state laws or engaged in a substantial misrepresentation concerning the borrower’s student loans or the educational services paid for using the student loans. If a borrower qualifies for the borrower defense to repayment discharge, the borrower’s federal student loans will be cancelled and all previous payments refunded to the borrower.Closed School Discharges: If a college closed while the student is enrolled or within 180 days of the student’s withdrawal, the student may be eligible for a closed school discharge of their federal student loans if they are unable to complete their education through a teach-out or by transferring credits to another school. It’s important to remember that these loan forgiveness programs only apply to Federal student loans (such as the latest settlement with the Department of Education). If you have private student loans, there are no specific student loan forgiveness programs that can help. However, there have been various lawsuits and settlements to dismiss some private loans in connection with these schools.Recently, Navient agreed to forgive $1.7 billion in private student loans for 66,000 borrowers who dropped out of for-profit colleges. Previously, Corinthian Colleges agreed to forgive private Genesis loans to borrowers who attended their schools.
Legal Updates
Several appeals have been filed since the Sweet v. Cardona agreement was approved, with borrowers feeling like they’ve been in limbo since 2022. In November 2022, the judge overseeing the case has approved the settlement agreement. However, the group that represented the schools has said it would appeal the case. In February 2023, the judge overseeing the case temporarily blocked loan forgiveness. However, by May, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals allowed loan forgiveness to proceed.By August 2023, the Education Department had instructed loan servicers to discharge the debt of over 128,000 class members. And more borrowers are starting to see their loans forgiven as a result.In January 2024, the first class members started receiving their settlements.In May 2024, the President approved loan forgiveness for $6.1 billion in federal student debt owed by 317,000 former Art Institutes students.
What To Do Next
If you think you qualify, you should have been (or will be) notified by your loan servicer. However, if your contact information is not updated, you may not be.As such, you should submit an application for the Borrower Defense To Repayment Discharge at studentaid.gov/borrower-defense/. Notice: There are a LOT of scams out there that are using these school names to get you to pay for help processing your student loan forgiveness claims. You don’t have to pay – you can do this all for free via StudentAid.gov (which is a legitimate government website). Read our list of common student loan scams here.