Are you familiar with this company? My favorite option is going after a debt settlement, and using McCarthy Law PLC to handle negotiations on your behalf. The ONLY reason we agreed to take out Parent Plus loans and federal loans was the high graduation and placement after graduation figures we were shown in marketing documents during multiple one on one sessions with admittance personnel from the school in late 2012/early 2013. This was the Art Institute of Phx. If any of these things sound familiar to you, then you can use them as the reasons for your Borrowers Defense Claim, so listen closely and write down anything that you remember happening to you. Falsely claimed that certain programs had the accreditation necessary for licensure. After living there for a month and realizing that the loan would only cover for about 3 more months of housing I decided to leave and got a studio off campus in the Bronx with the rest of the loan which covered about 9 months of rent (I ended up getting a part time job). A large portion of students are getting loans forgiven under the Art Institute loan forgiveness programs. We advise you to exercise patience since the line must have grown even longer in recent times. This is definitely grounds for a discharge! Code, 3305-3306, 3601.) For instance, consolidation or refinancing programs offer interest reduction advantage, while repayment plans can streamline the debt repayment process. Id still try to submit a BDAR Application and just include as much detail as you can. Unfortunately, yes. We were also told by the president of the school that we could go back at any point and study new programs that were not taught at that time. We paid cash for most of our daughters tuition but had to take a Parent Plus for the last $5000 due to her not passing one of her classes. Named Plaintiffs brought this lawsuit on behalf of themselves and all other federal student loan borrowers whose claims for loan cancellation (Borrower Defense applications) had been ignored by the Department of Education many of them since 2015. Glad that Parent PLUS loans are eligible, and thank you VERY MUCH for your response! The attorneys made an argument similar to what congressional Democrats had advanced in March when they asked DeVos to extend the timeline to October 2017, when the department approved the Dream Centers acquisition of the schools. Most people dont have anything written that proves they were defrauded. They may have changed the rules on this. I owe $86K in federal and $80 in Private. Again the same response and a dismissal from the conversation. I was 4 classes away from graduating!! Under the circumstances, any individual who owes student loans from the Art Institutes becomes automatically eligible to receive art institute loan forgiveness under the borrowers Defense program. Regards, Tasha. But in todays announcement, the department guaranteed that this time frame will be extended to nearly a year. This time around I got Financial aid, federal loans and grants. Im not saying that there isnt good information out there from sources not associated with the US government (after all, Im one of those types of sites), but I am saying that there are a lot of scammers trying to steal money from people, so be sure to be cautious in choosing who to trust.. What is the Borrower Defense customer service number? I am told that the miami and the online division are accepting students from effective schools, and are taking all credits regardless of grade. In August 2021, the Department of Education implemented a regulation change that allowed 323 million student loan borrowers with, Public Service Loan Forgiveness Explained. Rest assured, Art Institute loan forgiveness is 100% legit. I have a ton of information about the Closed School Loan Discharge Program here. If you do choose to apply for a Borrowers Defense Against Repayment Discharge, theres a very good chance that you will be able to get your student loans forgiven entirely. You might be able to find some good hard evidence of misleading claims. Whatever you do, dont file a claim anywhere else! This option helps students that made the wrong decision of enrollment due to mismanagement. Which Art Institute Loan Forgiveness Programs are Available? What do you think though? I even asked them to send me the Art Institute issued bill with all of my information on it. Transcripts and such wont matter, but if you can prove that you were defrauded and the school did something illegal, then you can qualify for a BDAR Discharge. This means that the federal government or debt collection companies will stop attempting to collect on the loans, including by not withholding money from your wages or income tax refunds. I was also a dumb 19 year old at the time so i was pretty denseand i suspect they did not really care. Theres no reason not to push for it. This is the best way to guarantee loan forgiveness from the Art Institution. The US Department of Education approved borrower defense to repayment (borrower defense) claims for borrowers that attended the following schools: 1. A landmark settlement affecting 200,000 borrowers will finally come to fruition, at least for most borrowers. In this article, Im going to explain the qualifications for receiving Art Institute loan forgiveness and Ill also provide you with details on how to apply for the benefits mentioned above. Im not sure I have much more physical evidence of that conversation aside from the wayback machine screenshots where they describe the graduation rate and the average salary that graduates make. Zach! Hey Zach, I went to that website that Tim Suggested Wayback Machine and I was able to find claims of actual percentages and salaries that were guaranteed on the AI website. Education Department spokeswoman Angela Morabito said Thursday that the agency maintains that the schools remained accredited through the change in ownership. The school has also closed now too, so itd pretty difficult to access your old transcripts, but you SHOULD still be able to source them somehow. Under this programs normal rules, you would have had to be enrolled or on an approved leave from the Art Institute within four months of the school closing, but the Department of Education has increased that eligibility timeline to all the way back to January 2018, meaning that anyone who attended the school at any point in 2018 will be eligible for the Closed School Discharge! Student Loan Forgiveness For Healthcare Workers: Recent Updates 2022, Navient Student Loan Forgiveness Programs, TheBorrowers Defense against RepaymentProgram. The Department of Justice charged Education Management Corp, which also happens to be the former owner of the Art Institutes, a total of $11 billion for federal funding fraud. The agency has agreed to expand the period of eligibility for former Art Institute students to have their debts canceled through the departments closed-school discharge program. So during my last quarter i was forced to take out a $20,000 private loan my last, so i could graduate. That was HIGHLY ILLEGAL of the recruiter to make that claim. simply charging for help or information thats available for free elsewhere is not fraudulent. Roped into a game art and design degree because there were no alternatives in sight for those interested in game design. Some illegal activities charged by DOJ include fraudulent recruiting and unlawful marketing. Do you think Im eligible for loan forgiveness? (see here) . I currently Owe 180k in student debt. For your Private loan, I would recommend contacting McCarthy Law PLC, a group of attorneys who specialize in handling private student debt. By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. Ashford students, DeVry students, University of Phoenix students, Career Colleges and Technical Schools - just to name a few! I filed the BDAR and it is not clear if I got approved or not, so I am filing a new one and still fighting!!! If youre having problems with taxes, be sure to visit Forget Tax Debt, or simply check out my pages about Filing and Paying IRS Back Taxes, IRS Tax Debt Settlements, IRS Tax Debt Forgiveness, and The IRS Fresh Start Program. Federal Judge William Alsup delayed the implementation of the settlement in late January so that he could hold Feb. 15s appeals hearing. With 4 outstanding private student loans out with my father as a cosigner, (Great Lakes and Navient) would I still qualify for Borrower Defense to Repayment Discharge with the right evidence to back up all of the accusations? I think this would fall under the sob story part but it is something they falsified and is now majorly affecting me today. I went to the art institute from 2011 to 2013 I did not finish at the school because of a mental health problem and they told me I needed to take a break (basically I was kicked out) I am about to finish my BA an university this spring. Mid July I try to enroll back at school, to find out that they are closing and I cant finish my 5 classes for my associates. I waited a bit after I graduated in 2007 because I became a single Mom in March of 2008. Fall 2020: In a historic hearing held on Zoom and attended by over 500 student borrowers, the judge finds the Department of Education was not acting in good faith and rejects the proposed settlement. and our We have a whole webpage dedicated to answering each and every question you might have. I felt so guilty about them footing the bill, I took a semester off to reaccess what to do with my life. That turned out to be utterly untrue., In fact, I continually emailed and called the career assistance office for years after my graduation attempting to get work and I never did. Thanks. But before you get too excited, heres the most important part of the Borrowers Defense process: its extremely important that you link your Borrowers Defense claim to the Art Institutes lawsuit and the fraudulent activity that theyve been accused of performing. Until they sign the papers to get rid of the program entirely, students of the Art Institute can still benefit from loan forgiveness through the Borrowers Defense Against Repayment. Hence, we have simplified the information so you know what to look out for and determine if you can benefit from theart institute loan forgiveness program. Very hard to get job interviews. She wasnt able to swing the schedule so she postponed her education. As a former Art Institute student, ask yourself if any of these things happened to you. Therefore, its vital that you pay attention to the details and fill out your application correctly, so lets look at the application process in more detail. Doesnt seem fair that recent graduates, borrowing tens of thousands of dollars, being able to walk away free and myself and others suffer. I attended the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale and graduated in 2000. I have attached a copy of a paycheck stub. I was honestly terrified of my financial aid advisors. How do I provide documentation on that? I was unemployed for months after I graduated. Between 2015 and today, nearly 500,000 borrowers have asserted their right under federal law to discharge their federal student loans due to their schools misconduct (borrower defense). I look at both schools and find out only the online will take all credits. Thats a good question, and you MIGHT still be eligible. How to Apply for the Closed School Discharge, Filing a Claim for the Borrowers Defense, Where to File the Borrowers Defense Claim, Forecasted Changes to the Art Institutes Loan Forgiveness Programs. Id pursue that. First, are you currently attending another school after having transferred your credits from the Art Institute? My loans are on hold with Navinet due to insufficient income. By accepting our use of cookies, your data will be aggregated with all other user data. Thanks so much in advance for your help! There may be hope for you if you can remember some very specific details about what was promised or marketed to you. They say the school misled them about everything from how likely they were to be employed after graduation to how. Judge William Alsup ruled Friday that the Department of Education (ED) may begin to erase the federal student loan debts of borrowers who filed borrower defense claims against a list of 150 schools within a certain time frame. It was hell and crazy, I was mislead and told that I would get a refund of around $6,000 because the school was closing early without a longer warning so they would discount my quarter by 50% meaning that Id have left over financial aid money that I could take home and apply to my student loans. Then the lady who handled the loans, a red-haired lady (whose name we do know, but I dont want to say it online), took them on a tour of the school, showing them the classrooms, kitchen area, and also showed trophies of past students who had made it. His mom was concerned about his dyslexia, and the lady promised there would be tutors who could help. Since the benefits of this program are so significant, you dont want to do anything that disqualifies you. The secretary also extended the window for closed-school discharge to six months for students at 24 other Dream Center schools including Argosy locations that closed. I was told that they had someone who would help me get a job after graduation, and after graduation mostly all that person did was tell me to go on indeed.com. They were also sketchy when it came to their accreditation, which I discovered when I attempted to transfer to another design program at a different school. 1Middle and high school students have the opportunity to design a robot that navigates through an obstacle course during a SPARK! Are you going after that, or are you pursuing a Borrowers Defense to Repayment Discharge? We believe you can expedite this process by providing documentation to support your claim. The Higher Learning Commission had raised concerns about the quality of education at the campuses and downgraded their status for up to four years while reviewing the Dream Centers 2017 acquisition of the Art Institute and Argosy campuses. Try contacting the Student Loan Ombudsman Group to ask if you can include these in a BDAR Application, then let me know what they say. I do not know about the credit weight change, and Im not really sure that this would be a good argument for BDAR either. A group of federal student loan borrowers first filed the lawsuit over the department's inaction and denial of borrower defense claims, largely against for-profit colleges. Sorry, but I dont do personal consultations. NOTE: This is the official Government website for the program, so you can trust it. That means they could receive federal student aid. The answer was consistent: Being included on the list painted these schools as predatory, which negatively impacts their ability to recruit students and form partnerships. Thanks Roberta Petrocci. Hi Tim, Thank you so much for the information youve provided. Sometimes (not always) you will see your claim 'IN REVIEW' status; often requiring a 'REQUEST FOR RECONSIDERATION' or 'ACTION REQUESTED' status, and you will need to promptly respond. Fingers crossed. I left the school without graduating because a few weeks prior to graduation and portfolio review I was told that I had failed 2 classes and would need to repeat them the next term or the next time they were offered, in order to graduate and participate in portfolio review. Because [the Higher Learning Commission] appears to have violated its own policies and our regulations, and harmed students by claiming these schools were unaccredited, the Secretary has used her discretion to extend the lookback period, Morabito said. Happened to you using McCarthy Law PLC to handle negotiations on your behalf repayment. A dumb 19 year old at the time so i could graduate again the same response and a from. Benefits of this program are so significant, you dont want to do anything that disqualifies.... 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