2020 Guide to Full Sail University Student Loan Forgiveness Benefits

How to Qualify for Student Loan Forgiveness from Full Sail University

NEWS ALERT: On Thursday, December 13th 2018 the Department of Education announced that they’re approving $150,000,000 in Borrower’s Defense to Repayment Discharges, including discharges for people who attended Full Sail University.

If you’ve already submitted your Full Sail BDAR application, then there’s a great chance you’ll receive forgiveness during this wave of approvals, so be sure to monitor your email closely, as DOE started issuing alerts notifying borrowers of approvals on Friday December 14th.

And if you haven’t already submitted your Full Sail Borrowers Defense application, then I’d suggest getting it in TODAY so that you stand a chance of being included in this round of approvals!

Everyone who attended Full Sail University has a chance of qualifying for a complete student loan discharge or refund via the Borrower’s Defense to Repayment program, and while there are certainly all sorts of Student Loan Forgiveness Scams floating around these days, this is a legitimate opportunity via a program provided by the Federal Government. It’s as legitimate as it gets.

In this article, I’m going to explain exactly how the Borrower’s Defense Against Repayment Program works, giving you all the details you need to figure out who qualifies for a discharge, how to apply for a discharge, and how to write a Borrower’s Defense claim that improves your chances of getting an approval.

If you’re a former Full Sail University seeking student loan forgiveness, then you’ve come to the right place!

Get Help With Your Loans!

If you're truly struggling with student loan debt, then you should consider paying a Student Loan Debt Relief Agency for help. Why? Because the people working at these companies deal with student loans all day, every day, and they're your best chance at figuring out how to get your loans back under control.

For help with Federal Student Loans call the Student Loan Relief Helpline at 1-888-906-3065. They will review your case, evaluate your options for switching repayment plans, consolidating your loans, or pursuing forgiveness benefits, then set you up to get rid of the debt as quickly as possible.

For help with Private Student Loans call McCarthy Law PLC at 1-877-317-0455. McCarthy Law will negotiate with your lender to settle your private loans for much less than you currently owe (typically 40%), then get you a new loan for the lower, settled amount so you can pay off the old loan, repair your credit and reduce your monthly payments.

I've spent 10 years interviewing debt relief agencies, talking to all sorts of "experts", and these are the only two companies that I trust to help my readers. If you have a bad experience with either of them, please make sure to come back and let me know about it in the Comments!

Discharging Full Sail Loans via Borrower’s Defense Against Repayment

Unlike some of the other For-Profit schools who’ve been hit with massive Class-Action Lawsuits in recent years, Full Sail University hasn’t been dragged through the court system, so Borrower’s Defense Claims against the school are a longer shot, but there’s still hope that anyone who attended can get qualify for a discharge.

Why? Because the Borrower’s Defense Against Repayment Program allows people to discharge loans that shouldn’t have existed in the first place, typically because they were created based on some kind of illegal or fraudulent activity committed by the school.

In Full Sail’s case, even though there aren’t any active lawsuits against the school, the Internet is full of people complaining about the way the school marketed it’s programs, treated students and delivered its services.

Why Are People Complaining About Full Sail?

Complaints from former students include accusations that Full Sail misrepresented job placement rates to entice students to sign up for expensive loans, claims that Full Sail used confusing language to explain their accreditation statements for certain academic programs, and even claims that the school promised specific salaries or job titles to graduates of certain majors, all of which are totally illegal behaviors that would open the school up to Borrower’s Defense claims.

Now, in the interest of being fair, I have not personally been wrong by Full Sail, nor do I know if these claims are true, and while I don’t want to be a rumor monger and trash a legitimate school’s reputation, there’s an old saying: “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire”, and oftentimes it seems that the rumor mill ends up being way closer to the truth than any of us may initially realize.

And because there’s public discourse about Full Sail’s potentially illegal behavior, I think anyone struggling with loans from the school who feels like they were wronged, manipulated, or defrauded has a decent shot at applying for a Borrower’s Defense Discharge.

If you do decide to file a Borrower’s Defense complaint against Full Sail, then keep a couple things in mind…

1. You need to tell the truth. Don’t make up anything about what the school did to you, because if you’re found to be lying, you may end up facing legal action yourself.
2. You need to prove that you only agreed to attend Full Sail (and take out the expensive student loans to pay for their education programs) because of this illegal thing that they did to you.

How do you go about explaining a school’s illegal behavior on a Borrower’s Defense application? Let’s look at that next.

How to Write Your Borrower’s Defense Claim

If you choose to file a Borrower’s Defense Claim against Full Sail, then you’re going to need to prove that the school did something illegal to you personally. You can’t just say “People on the Internet are saying they did illegal stuff, so I need a discharge.”

You need to clearly articulate exactly what the school did to you, and how that illegal activity convinced you that it was a good idea to borrow student loans to pay for their academic programs, and you need to make it crystal clear that you wouldn’t have agreed to borrow any money had you not been exposed to whatever illegal behavior they performed.

If the school promised that you’d earn a certain salary after graduation, then make that the hinge for your claim. If the school said you’d be able to get a specific job title after completing their program, then use that as your evidence.

Above all, make sure to be specific about your claim. What exactly did Full Sail tell you that convinced you to take out the student loan? What did they promise you? This needs to be explained in your application, or you’re sure to get denied for a discharge.

Let’s take a closer look now at the accusations former students are making against the school. Do any of them sound familiar? If they do, because you experienced the same behavior yourself, then you may want to consider filling out a Borrower’s Defense application.

What Fraudulent Activity has Full Sail Been Accused Of?

Full Sail University has been accused of a variety of things over the years. Former students complain that they were:

• Misled by Full Sail’s recruiters about the quality of the school’s academic programs.
• Misled via assurances that they would be able to get a high-paying job in their field of study.
• Misled into believing that their Full Sail credits would be transferable to other schools.

These are just a few of the complaints former students are making against Full Sail. I encourage you to do a bit of research yourself before you write your Borrower’s Defense application, because you may find other things that people have accused the school of doing, and which you personally experienced yourself.

Now, once more, it’s not enough to simply point out that other former students are claiming that Full Sail defrauded them, because you need to prove that the school actually did these things to you personally.

This is the key to getting your Borrower’s Defense claim approved. You will need to prove that Full Sail did these things to you, and that if they hadn’t committed these illegal acts, you never would have agreed to borrow any money to attend their academic programs.

Where Can I File My Borrower’s Defense Claim?

To file a Borrower’s Defense claim go to the official US government website set up for the program.

Do not file your claim anywhere else, no matter what someone promises you, because there are all sorts of scammers and identity thieves out there using this program as bait to get people’s information.

You’ll need to be ultra careful about this part of the process, because all sorts of companies have created websites that look like official portals for the Borrower’s Defense Program, and many of them are claiming they can help you fill out the application and guarantee a discharge, but this is all deception. Don’t fall for it!

Checking The Status of My Application

Unfortunately, Borrower’s Defense applications are taking quite some time to process right now, as the Department of Education has been inundated with claims against all sorts of schools.

I know that many people are waiting over a year to hear back on their applications, so don’t worry if you don’t get an immediate response – you’re probably just sitting in the long backlog of claims.

Whatever you do, don’t let the thought of a long wait stop you from applying now either, because President Trump’s Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is trying to scrap the Borrower’s Defense program for good.

If she’s successful, and Borrower’s Defense is eliminated, then your only hope of getting a discharge will be to get your application submitted before they change the rules, which should grandfather you into the benefit, and allow you to receive a discharge even after the program is removed.

Will I Owe Taxes on Forgiven Debt?

Unfortunately, yes, if you do get your debt forgiven then you’ll probably end up having to pay the IRS a portion of the forgiven amount, since they consider forgiven student loan debt to be a form of taxable income.

How does that work? For a comprehensive look at the process, visit my page on Student Loan Forgiveness Benefits and Taxable Income Laws. Or, for a brief introduction, simply look at the example below.

Let’s say that you receive $10,000 in student loan debt forgiveness. If you’re being taxed at a 30% rate for regular income, that would mean you’d need to pay the IRS $3,000 because you’d owe them 30% of the forgiven $10,000.

And the real bad news is that the IRS doesn’t operate like your standard student loan processor, who gives you many years to pay them back. The IRS wants their money all at once, up front, right now, in a single lump-sum payment.

For most Americans, that’s going to cause a problem, because we don’t typically have thousands (or tens of thousands of dollars) just laying around, ready to be handed over to the IRS.

I’m so concerned about student loan forgiveness tax liabilities that I set up an entirely new web site to help people with tax-related problems, called Forget Tax Debt, where I offer the same sort of advice I give away here, but for tax-related issues instead.

If you’re having trouble with IRS, make sure to visit Forget Tax Debt, where you can find information and guides on topics like Filing & Paying IRS Back Taxes, IRS Tax Debt Settlements, The IRS Fresh Start Program, and IRS Tax Debt Forgiveness.

Where Else Can I Ask Questions?

If you’re looking for help with general student loan problems, then take a look at the other pages of my site, where I’ve written about all sorts of forgiveness, relief and assistance programs in detail.

For help getting Federal Student Loan Relief, look at my pages on Federal Loan Forgiveness, Federal Student Loan Bankruptcy Discharges, Federal Loan Consolidation Programs and Federal Student Loan Repayment Plans.

For help getting Private Student Loan Relief, look at my pages on  Private Loan Forgiveness, Private Student Loan Consolidation, Private Student Loan Bankruptcy Discharges and Private Student Loan Default Help.

And if you need more assistance with the Borrower’s Defense Against Repayment Program, the best resource for you will probably be the official US Government website set up for BDAR, which you can find here.

Remember, it’s not a good idea to take student loan advice from any source other than the US government, unless you’ve fully vetted them, because there are all sorts of fraudsters running around in this industry trying to suck money away from people who need help.

If you still have trouble finding answers to your questions after reading through the materials above, please do feel free to ask a question in the comments section below and I’ll get you a response as quickly as I can.

Disclaimer:Information obtained from Forget Student Loan Debt is for educational purposes only. You should consult a licensed financial professional before making any financial decisions. This site receives some compensation through affiliate relationships. This site is not endorsed or affiliated with the U.S. Department of Education.