Student Loan Forgiveness

A Complete Guide to Student Loan Forgiveness

What is Student Loan Forgiveness?

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Student loan forgiveness programs were created to help students not be in such high debt. There are multiple different ways to be eligible for student loan forgiveness programs but each one requires a certain amount of time dedication on your part. Most student loan forgiveness programs are controlled by the state or country you live in. The only time this is an exception is when looking at certain job fields and of course volunteer opportunities.

Some student loan forgiveness programs have deadlines and stipulations to meet so it is ideal to look at these programs when even looking at loans to take out. If you have already graduated that is okay too but it is important not to delay finding out all the proper information on student loan forgiveness.

Obama Student Loan Forgiveness Program

The first type of student loan forgiveness that has reached the headlines lately is the Obama student loan forgiveness program. This federal program has been talk of President Obamas campaign since 2007 before his presidency.

In the fall of 2011 the program was finally proposed and in spring of 2012 made effective but only up until people who borrowed before July of 2012.

The eligibility to this program is almost startling. Although he promises this will help fix the student debt crisis, it doesn’t seem like his plan does that for a lot of reasons.

Obama Student Loan Forgiveness Program

To be eligible a person must have made one hundred and twenty payments on their loans, be a United States citizen, have no loans in default, and the loan wanting forgiveness must be a federal loan. This plan is definitely a huge help to the ones that actually qualify. The plan makes payments only ten percent of your income, allows for a ten year economic hardship delay in payments, and can lower your payments up to half of one percent if you consolidate your federal loans and have them paid monthly out of your account. This plan is definitely one to look into but its huge downfall is definitely all the things you must do to be eligible for the program. You can hear more about the program in this video

Read more about Obama Student Loan Forgiveness Program

Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program

Public Service Loan Forgiveness

The next tear of student loan forgiveness is the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program. This program is also fairly new and was created in October 2007. This program much like the Obama program makes a person pay one hundred and twenty payments towards their students loans before qualification but they also must be working in a job for public service and document everything during this time. This program again like the Obama program requires the forgiveness only be towards federal student loans and no loans can be in default. The jobs that fall under the public service loan forgiveness program are the following in no specific order; any government organization that’s follows under the guideline, non –profit tax exempt organizations and private nonprofit organizations that include emergency management, school based libraries or services, military service, public library service, public safety, public education, law enforcement, public health, public service for individuals with disabilities, early childhood education, law enforcement, and public interest law services. All of these fall under the student loan forgiveness program of public service. It does not directly state how much of your federal loans or if all would be paid at the time of completing their stipulations. To find out more information please visit http://www.nslds.ed.gov/nslds_SA/ and to print out your employment paper for the program you can print out the document here http://www.studentaid.ed.gov/sites/default/files/ECF_PSLF.pdf.

TEACH Student Loan Forgiveness Program

TEACH-forgiveness

The TEACH program is another type of federal student loan forgiveness. This program is for teachers teaching for five years in a poverty level school or title one school. This program can provide up to seventeen thousand five hundred dollars towards federal student loans if you fall into the guidelines. Although this is the criteria set forth for the TEACH program there is also different levels of the teacher program. The best way to describe this is to give an example. Mrs. Doe works at Easter Seals, a type of center for handicap and no handicap children. This center can be found online at http://nc.eastersealsucp.com/services/childrens-centers/ . At this center Mrs. Doe has to be working full time, guarantee a year of work after each year that is paid towards college, paid an hourly pay of nine dollar an hour to begin, and can only miss a total of three hours in a week. If Mrs. Doe follows the rules she gets twelve free credit hours of college a year. Upon Mrs. Doe graduating she will also qualify for numerous student loan forgiveness programs not only under the TEACH program but could also end up under the two previous types of loan forgiveness programs as well. As you can see the TEACH program provides a lot more than just their main forgiveness programs so it is important to know what all you can qualify for under the program. To apply for the TEACH program you can visit the website http://ifap.ed.gov/dpcletters/attachments and print out your application.

Read more about TEACH program

Healthcare Student Loan Forgiveness Programs (Nurses, Doctors, Therapists)

Medical-Loan-Forgiveness

The healthcare industry is another that allows for student loan forgiveness programs. This can include General Practitioner (Allopathic and Osteopathic Physicians), Psychiatric Nurse,Primary Care Nurse Practitioner or Certified Midwife,Licensed Psychologist,Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist or Professional Counselor,Dentist or Dental Hygienist,Primary Care Physician Assistant, and or Licensed Clinical Social Worker.Some of these loans actually may apply towards private loans when all the previous types of forgiveness do not. Most of these have different sectors that fall under the college you attended as well as the place you choose to work for. The amounts can vary but a person must possess at least a bachelor’s degree in their preferred field. Numerous medical colleges also provide a type of loan forgiveness in exchange for working for one of their facilities they are associated with but the main program for medical workers is called National Health Services Corps Loan Repayment Program. The National Health Services Corps Loan Repayment Program provides forgiveness up to fifty thousand dollars after two years of service in a health professional shortage work field area. A person applying for this must do so early in the year. Each year this program shuts off applications at a certain time and does not open up again to the next year. Lastly, the most important thing to know about this loan forgiveness type is it applies to private and federal loans which are a rarity in most forgiveness programs. This definitely makes this program stand out as one of the best student loan forgiveness programs out there. One may also go into healthcare under the military and then apply under their standards for forgiveness as well which can be fairly high.

Read more about Student Loan Forgiveness for Nurses

Military Loan Forgiveness Program

Military-Pay-Off-Student-Loan

The military of course provides a good extent of loan forgiveness as well. The amount of time you have to serve depends on the branch you choose and for how long you intend on serving. It really is an amazing incentive while also working and serving your country as well. Not only does each branch provide a loan forgiveness amount but it also falls under the public service student loan forgiveness program as well. The National Guard provides up to 18,000 dollars towards student loans depending on the service time. The biggest benefit of choosing the National Guard is it is only one weekend a month and you receive a small pay as well for your service while still doing whatever career you have in civilian life.The Army allows up to 65,000 dollars to be paid toward loans as forgiveness as total, but yearly it provides 1,500 or thirty-three percent of your loan amounts.The Air force as well is on the same forgiveness rate but maxes out at 10,000 dollars instead of the huge amount like the Army. The Navy like the army provides up to 65,000 dollars maximum but does not clearly state if their rate per year is the same as the Army and Air Force. None of these military forgiveness programs directly specify if these loans must be federal student loans or if they can be private as well.The military just like volunteer opportunities look amazing on your resume as well and almost guarantee you will get a job above someone else who does not have military experience.The best way to find out this specific knowledge is to contact a recruiter or go to www.military.com for more information.

Student Loan Forgiveness for Volunteering

Forgiveness-on-Student-Loans-by-Volunteering

The last large category of loan forgiveness is volunteering for all or some of three different programs. These programs are the

  • AmeriCorps
  • VISTA
  • Peace Corps.

Currently the AmeriCorps and VISTA programs are working together but also can work separately as well.The AmeriCorps offers up to twelve thousand dollars for a year of service in between student loan forgiveness and living expenses allowance. There website is located at http://www.americorps.gov/. , but you can also watch a video about them at

The VISTA program is ran differently and does not provide any type of living expenses but can allow up to four thousand and seven hundred dollars toward your student loans to be forgiven as long as you volunteer for them a minimum of seventeen hundred hours. The Peace Corps can provide up to seventy percent of forgiveness on your federal student loans but they only provide a forgiveness rate of fifteen perfect per year so you do get forgiveness yearly which can be a big plus but it’s a small amount each year of service. The biggest advantage to choosing volunteer work for your first loan forgiveness option is because the impact you have. A person gets to help others while extremely improving their resume. We all know this is one of the first things our employers look at is our working and volunteering experience to see what kind of employee we could be for their company. An individual not only having this on their resume would be great for that reason but also to have more professional references , since usually upon graduating most people haven’t had that much positive work experience. There are most likely other volunteer resources as well that provide the same types of forgiveness if you just put forth the effort to find them and sign on with their organization. These things can be hard to list as a whole but once you know your area you will want to volunteer in then just search for opportunities in that area and call around. Do not be afraid to ask if organizations offer any incentives to help with your student loans. That is one of many reasons why organizations actually exist is to help people in their community for whatever the reason or reasons may be.

Summary of The Possible Loan Forgiveness Options

Loan-Forgiveness-Programs

The amounts of loan forgiveness programs out there are pretty endless. There is no way to take every company and see what they provide as incentives on student loan forgiveness. The best way to get your loans forgiven is to be informed. If one obtains all the knowledge above and then contacts perspective places they plan to start or continue their career then they are on the best track to not having any student debt. If you still feel uncertain about which programs are right for you the best solution besides knowing all the correct information is to contact the financial advisor at your college you attended or are attending and ask about all the knowledge and incentives they know of about student loan forgiveness. A person can really never have too much information about programs available to erase their debt. Just remember that most loan forgiveness program is geared towards federal loans only but there are still ones towards private loans like the main forgiveness program for medical student graduates. Most importantly just keep track of all your information and if you do not find a forgiveness program for your work field then just keep searching till you do or can find a job that qualifies less than one of tiers of the loan forgiveness programs.

More About Student Loan Forgiveness

Student loan forgiveness programs are programs set forth by companies or the government to help student pay off their debt in loans. Student loan forgiveness programs can be found by the handfuls. Some are gimmicks but most are legit. The best way to find out about student loan forgiveness programs is to ask your financial advisor while still in college. This is the easiest way so you will be on the correct steps upon graduating. If that is not possible then you start from the beginning.

Student Loan forgiveness programs are generally available to anyone who is in a job field the helps out the community. That also means you must work a certain amount of hours in the field and have a certain level of education for your student loans to be forgiven. If you think your job may qualify under this and you have student loans then you are in the right place to learn about what is out there. It is important to remember though almost all student loan forgiveness programs are geared toward federal student loans only. Usually the only way to get private student loan forgiveness is from a company you are employed or to be employed by or possibly the military depending on branch and the agreement within contact.

What is Student Loan Forgiveness

Popular Student Loan Forgiveness Programs

The most widely known student loan forgiveness programs are the following:

  • Public service loan forgiveness program
  • Military loan forgiveness programs
  • Medical loan forgiveness programs
  • Obama loan forgiveness programs
  • Volunteer loan forgiveness programs

All of these programs vary in the amount of time you have to serve for them and the amount of forgiveness that you can possibly receive. Once you know if you qualify less than one of these programs them you must find a place of work or prospective places of work. This is important because many jobs provide an amount of forgiveness that may or may not be advertised as an incentive to work for their place of work. The place you choose for employment may also provide incentives on future education that may be free or provide forgiveness as well. Also make sure you contact you college you are graduating from have graduated from in the past. Some of these schools especially medical schools have some clauses that will give you a certain amount of forgiveness if you work for a building that is associated with their college as well. So not only is the place you choose to work important but also the place you choose or have chosen to get you education at as well.

Document Everything

In closing as you can see there are endless opportunities to be obtained to get rid of those pesky student loans. The amount of forgiveness may not pay off your loans completely but will at least pay off a huge chunk of money that you otherwise would have to pay for out of your own pocket. Just remember the best thing you can do is to be informed and document everything. When you have the proper education on what is out there and keep it organized then the chances of you having little to no student debt is pretty high.