How to Qualify for a DeVry Student Loan Discharge or Refund
UPDATED Sunday March 29th, 2020
I created this Guide to explain the DeVry Student Loan Lawsuits and to teach you how to use them (and other programs) to receive DeVry Student Loan Forgiveness Benefits.
First, I’ll explain the major filed against DeVry, then I’ll give you specific advice on how to deal with your loans, whether or not these lawsuits apply to your specific situation!
If you’d like to skip to the part of this Guide that talks about currently available Student Loan Relief Programs, then simply click one of the links below to be taken to that section of the Guide:
- 2020’s Best Student Loan Forgiveness Programs
- 2020’s Best Student Loan Discharge Programs
- Other Federal Student Loan Assistance Programs
- Other Private Student Loan Assistance Programs
With that said, let’s get into the DeVry lawsuits and settlements.
But Before I Explain the DeVry Lawsuits…
Let me give you a quick bit of advice – these lawsuits most likely won’t resolve your student loans entirely.
In fact, the previous dispersements that came from FTC settlements didn’t help much from a financial perspective. Some borrowers only received a couple hundred dollars in refunds.
If you're truly struggling with student debt, then you should also 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.I've interviewed all sorts of debt relief agencies over the past 10 years, talking to all sorts of so-called "experts", and I can tell you that in all honesty I've only found two companies I trust to offer actual financial relief to people struggling with student loans.
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. They will negotiate with your lender to settle your private loans for much less than you owe, then get you a new loan for the much lower, settled amount. NOTE: McCarthy Law can ONLY help with Private student loans.
If you do decide to call one of these companies and you have a bad experience with either of them, PLEASE make sure to come back and let me know about it in the Comments!
The 2019 Class-Action Lawsuit Against DeVry
NEWS ALERT: On August 20th, 2019, DeVry University alumni launched a brand new class-action lawsuit against the college.
This new lawsuit claims that DeVry falsified employment statistics for graduates, thereby tricking students into signing up for loans from the University under the belief that they’d be able to easily find jobs after graduating.
This lawsuit follows hot on the heels of the FTC settlements vs. DeVry, which were resolved earlier in 2019, and which saw two rounds of settlement checks issued to former students.
In this new class-action lawsuit, DeVry is accused of false advertising since at least 2008 by claiming that 90% of DeVry graduates actively seeking employment were able to find jobs in their field of study within 6 months of graduation.
This new DeVry Alumni Class Action Lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, and is officially named Dennis Magana, et al. v. Adtalem Global Education Inc., et al., Case No. 2:19-cv-01572.
The 2018/2019 FTC Lawsuits & Settlements
As of May, 2019, the FTC’s DeVry Student Loan Forgiveness Program has already sent two different rounds of refund checks to tens of thousands of former DeVry students.
The first round of refunds were sent out in July 2017, offering $49,000,000 in student loan forgiveness benefits to about 173,000 total borrowers, averaging around $280 per student.
The second round of refunds were sent out in May 2019, and included checks for just under 130,000 people, but totaling only about $9,400,000 (9.4 million dollars) in total forgiveness, meaning that this second round of checks should only average around $70 per recipient.
To be clear, it’s nice to get a refund when one wasn’t expected, but in my opinion, this is a tiny pittance and not at all worth accepting. The good news, however, is that this refund doesn’t threaten your ability to receive COMPLETE forgiveness via the Borrower’s Defense to Repayment Program, so if you were offered the refund, go ahead and cash it, but then make sure to read my instructions below about getting the rest of your loan debt discharged via BDAR.
Below, I’ll explain the FTC’s forgiveness settlement with DeVry, including who qualifies for the benefit, I’ll detail why DeVry is being forced to pay back former students, and I’ll explain what you need to do to ensure you receive your check (if you haven’t gotten one already…).
Then I’ll explain what you need to do whether or not you qualify for an FTC settlement refund check, which is to apply for a complete loan discharge by filing a Borrower’s Defense to Repayment claim against DeVry. I’ll explain what the Borrower’s Defense Against Repayment Program is, how it works, and what you’ll need to say to get your discharge application approved, so listen up!
Two Ways to Pursue DeVry Loan Forgiveness
As I mentioned above, there are technically two completely different DeVry Student Loan Forgiveness Benefits Programs, including:
- The FTC’s Settlement with DeVry, which issues small, but automatic refund checks (averaging about $280 per borrower in the first wave, and $70 per borrower in the second wave)
- Borrower’s Defense to Repayment Discharges, which require a lot of work, but provide complete student loan forgiveness (plus potential refunds for any money already paid to DeVry!)
It’s pretty obvious that it’d be better to qualify for a Borrower’s Defense Discharge, but it’s the FTC Settlement with DeVry which has been making headlines in recent years, even though it only offers about $350 in loan forgiveness to each student who qualifies.
And while $350 is great, it’s nothing compared to what you’d get if you were get approved for a Borrower’s Defense Against Repayment Discharge, which could get you a complete discharge, plus refunds for anything you’ve already paid DeVry.
Let’s go through the differences of these two programs so that you can see exactly what you’ll need to do to ensure you receive as much financial support as possible.
1. Partial Refunds from the FTC Settlement with DeVry
On July 10th, 2017, the FTC announced that they were beginning to send out partial refunds to former DeVry students, averaging about $280 in refunds per student.
This stems from a lawsuit filed against DeVry that resulted from their improper and illegal activities used to recruit students by allegedly making false promises and committing false advertising.
Partial refunds were already provided to people who:
- enrolled in a bachelor’s or associate’s degree program at DeVry University between January 1, 2008 and October 1, 2015
- paid at least $5,000 with cash, loans, or military benefits
- did not get debt or loan forgiveness as part of this settlement
- completed at least one class credit.
These partial refunds are great, because they are the first time I can recall a big school getting forced to issue refunds to their students, but the $300 they offer to each individual student doesn’t really move the needle much either.
Additionally, in May 2019, the FTC announced that they still have over $9,000,000 left in the settlement fund, so they said they’d be sending a second wave of refund checks, this time only to people who have already cashed the check from the first wave, which meant that 128,875 new checks were being issued, averaging about $70 each.
Fortunately, if you owe lots of money to DeVry, then you don’t have to settle for that tiny $350 pair of checks, and you can instead try to get rid of your ENTIRE DeVry-related loan by pursuing a much better option: the Borrower’s Defense Against Repayment Program.
2. Complete Forgiveness via Borrower’s Defense
The Borrower’s Defense to Repayment Program is the best-kept secret in the student loans industry, and one that the media rarely mentions (because of who funds their budgets…).
Borrower’s Defense allows you to request a complete and total discharge for any amount of money you owe a school, as well a refund for any funds that you’ve already paid them, if you can prove that you only borrowed money to attend that school as a result of having been lied to, defrauded, tricked or otherwise illegally scammed.
Because DeVry has admitted to all sorts of illegal activity, like running ads on TV, Radio and the Internet, which lied about their job placement rates and the income levels of their graduates, it’s not that hard to file a successful Borrower’s Defense claim against them, as long as you understand how the program works.
The bad news is that thousands of former DeVry students have already submitted a Borrower’s Defense claim, and so many Borrower’s Defense applications have recently been submitted to the Department of Education that it’s reportedly taking over a year for applicants to find out if their submissions are approved, so you’ll want to get your application in as soon as possible to avoid a long delay.
One other benefit to applying right away is that it’s possible President Trump’s Student Loan Reform Program will literally end the Borrower’s Defense to Repayment Program (his Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has already been sued TWICE for trying to pause processing Borrower’s Defense claims), and submitting your application before he cancels the program could grandfather you into it, allowing you to qualify for a discharge even if he ends funding for the benefit.
Now that you know how powerful Borrower’s Defense is, and why it’s so important that you get an application in right away, let’s go through what you actually need to do to fill out your Borrower’s Defense application properly so that it’ll be approved.
How to Write Your Borrower’s Defense Claim Against DeVry
If you choose to file a Borrower’s Defense Claim against DeVry, you’ll need to keep one very important point in mind: this is a legally binding process, so you need to tell the truth, because lying could lead to facing very harsh consequences.
Please do not ruin Borrower’s Defense for people who DESERVE discharges, and make sure that you don’t exaggerate, fib, or outright lie about your own experience with DeVry, because if enough people make that mistake, this program is sure to be removed.
With that said – keep in mind that when you file your claim against DeVry, you’ll need to accuse them of committing some form of illegal behavior, and clearly state that this illegal activity was the primary motivation for your choice to borrow money to pay for their higher education programs.
In other words, your Borrower’s Defense Application will only be approved if you can successfully argue that you only borrowed the money to go to DeVry because they did something illegal, like lying to you about their job placement rates, or average salary data.
The nice thing about filing a Borrower’s Defense claim against DeVry is that it’ll be pretty dang easy to prove that, since DeVry has already admitted to committing all sorts of illegal behavior in the way that they advertised to potential students, doing things like falsely claiming that their graduates with Bachelor’s Degrees earned 15% higher incomes than graduates from competing schools.
Below I’ll go through some of the illegal behaviors that DeVry has been accused of, and admitted to, so you can think about whether or not any of these happened to you, then use them as reasons for why your DeVry loans should be discharged.
What Illegal Activity Did DeVry Admit To?
In late 2016, DeVry University finally admitted that its ads “misled prospective students”, and agreed to pay out $100,000,000 to settle a lawsuit with the Federal Trade Commission.
These are the funds that were used to pay back former DeVry students via the FTC’s automated payments, but what really matters here is that DeVry admitted to having done all sorts of illegal stuff, and stuff that you can use as evidence in your Borrower’s Defense to Repayment Application!
Some of the highlights were found when the Department of Education investigated DeVry’s advertised claims, such as one stating that 90% of their graduates since 1975 were able to find jobs in their study areas within just six months of graduation, which the Department of Education said DeVry could not prove.
If you happened to see an ad, or read a pamphlet, or receive an email, or be told by an enrollment advisor that this was a true fact, then you just may have an argument that your DeVry loans were created based on illegal activity.
DeVry also falsely claimed that their graduates with Bachelor’s Degrees earned, on average, 15% higher incomes a year after graduating than graduates from other colleges and universities, and again, DeVry wasn’t able to provide any proof for this statement to the Department of Education either.
If you ran across this claim, and that claim convinced you that it was a good idea to take out loans to attend DeVry simply because you’d make 15% more than you’d get after graduating from some other college, then you may be able to use that as your argument for Borrower’s Defense.
The key point here is that these statements are totally illegal, because they’re what’s known as “false advertising”, and that’s exactly the type of behavior that you need to include on your Borrower’s Defense Application.
Make Sure Your Claims Are Clear
When you fill out your Borrower’s Defense document, you need to remember that someone at the Department of Education will be reading it, and that you’ll have to convince them that you really only agreed to borrow money to attend DeVry as a direct result of the things they lied about in their ads.
The best way to do this is to tell a story about how much of an impact these claims had on you, as perhaps you were waffling between attending DeVry and a local, cheaper state-school, but then you heard that DeVry graduates earn 15% more money than graduates from other schools, so you agreed to borrow more money to attend DeVry than you would have needed for that local college.
Perhaps you were considering attending a trade school, or signing up to be an apprentice somewhere, but then you saw that 90% of DeVry grads were able to find jobs in their field within 6 months of graduation, which significantly reduced the risk you thought you were taking by borrowing so much money to go to DeVry.
Do you see what I’m trying to say? If you can’t tell a story like this in your application, then it’s likely to be denied, because Borrower’s Defense hinges on the idea that you would not have taken out those student loans had you not experienced fraudulent activity from a bad actor.
DeVry Is TRULY a Bad Actor Who Deserves to be Punished
If you’re on the fence about hurting DeVry, because you’re one of those people that doesn’t want to blame anyone else for your own mistakes, then let me make it clear to you why DeVry definitely deserves to cover the costs of your education.
When DeVry claimed that their 90% of their students were able to find careers within their fields within 6 months of graduation, they included jobs like being a Server at the Cheesecake Factory counting as working in the field of Business Administration, or being a Sales Associate at Macy’s counting as working in the field of Technical Management.
If that’s not enough to prove to you how loosely DeVry played with the facts to come up with their outlandish claims, them I’m not sure what it’d take to convince you that these guys were operating in the scummiest, most disingenuous way possible.
In fact, while I do have a great friend who makes a ton of money as a Computer Programmer, and which he only got to become thanks to his degree from DeVry, I’d consder DeVry to be more of a marketing company than a school, as it has truly failed so many of it’s attendees, and these failures have been documented by massive media outlets like Forbes, the New York Times, Market Watch, and others.
If you were tricked by DeVry’s deceptive advertising campaigns, then you owe it to yourself to pursue a Borrower’s Defense to Repayment Discharge in order to punish them, and to help convince other schools to avoid participating in similar illegal marketing activity to trap other students in debt.
Where Do I File My Borrower’s Defense Application?
There’s only ONE PLACE that you need to go (and should go) to file your claim against DeVry, and that’s the official U.S. Government website for the Borrower’s Defense Program, which is here: https://borrowerdischarge.ed.gov/s/?language=en_US
Do NOT file a Borrower’s Defense Application with anyone else, because everyone else who wants to take down all this information from you may be a potential Student Loan Scammer, and you could be opening yourself up to a world of hurt via Identity Theft or other problems.
When you’re filling out your Borrower’s Defense Claim, remember that it’s legally binding, so you need to tell the truth about everything you submit to the Department of Education. Do not lie. Do not even exaggerate.
Be honest and completely open about your experience, but don’t be afraid to point the finger at DeVry if they really did trick you into signing up for their school with illegal false advertising claims.
If you need help with your Borrower’s Defense Application, feel free to post questions in the Comments section below here and I’ll do my best to offer advice, or call the Student Loan Relief Helpline for their expert assistance. You can reach them at 1-888-906-3065.
Remember though, the Helpline is NOT a Government Service, and it will cost money to get their aid in completing all the paperwork.
These guys are experts, and they can definitely ensure that your paperwork is completed properly, but they cannot guarantee that your Application will get approved, and they cannot do anything you couldn’t do entirely on your own, for free.
The value in bringing them in is that they do this day in and day out, they know how to structure a Borrower’s Defense claim, and they’ll increase the chances that you put forward a solid argument that deserves to be approved.
Where Can I Check the Status of My Application?
As of the time of this writing, there is no way to check on the status of your application.
After you submit it, you’ll just have to keep your fingers crossed and pray that your application makes it to the right people, is reviewed properly, and approved to provide you with a discharge.
Remember that Education Secretary Betsy DeVos (and by extension, President Trump who appointed her) are not at all fans of Borrower’s Defense, and have been actively trying to kill the program off.
That’s the reason you need to get your application in now, and make sure that it’s filled out correctly, because if they cancel the program before you submit, you’ll be out of luck, and if they cancel the program after you’ve submitted an incorrect or incomplete application, there’s a good chance you’ll still be out of luck.
Will I Have to Pay Taxes on My Forgiven Debt?
Unfortunately, the answer to that question is a resounding YES.
Whether your loans are Federal or Private, the IRS is going to force you to claim whatever amount of money you end up getting forgiven as income on your IRS return.
I cover this topic in detail on my page Student Loan Forgiveness Benefits and Taxable Income Laws, but here’s a basic example:
If you get $10,000 in DeVry student loan debt forgiven, then you’ll have to add that $10,000 to your annual income on your IRS tax return, and you’ll need to pay a percentage of that $10,000 in taxes (whatever your tax bracket’s rate is).
As a further example, if your income tax bracket pays 33%, then you’d have to pay $3,300 in taxes on the $10,000 forgiveness that you received.
And while it’s still a good deal, because you’re netting a gain of $6,700, keep in mind that your tax bill will be due all at once, whereas your student loan payments were being stretched out over a long period of time.
I’m so worried that many people will end up getting hit by huge tax bills they weren’t anticipating, and can’t afford, so I’ve created an entirely new website specifically for helping people with tax-related problems, called Forget Tax Debt.
This new site is just like Forget Student Loan Debt, where I offer free advice and information about all sorts of related problems, except that instead of talking about student loan problems, I’m covering tax related problems.
On Forget Tax Debt, I’ve already offered advice on a variety of issues, like Applying for IRS Tax Debt Forgiveness, Settling Your IRS Tax Debt, Evaluating Tax Resolution Companies, Applying for the IRS Fresh Start Program, and even Avoiding IRS Phone Scams, but I’ve got many more in the pipeline, so be sure to check it out!
Where Did DeVry Forgiveness Come From?
In late 2016, DeVry University finally admitted that its ads “misled prospective students”, and agreed to pay out $100,000,000 to settle a lawsuit with the Federal Trade Commission.
Under the terms of the settlement, DeVry was forced to allocate:
- $49,400,000 for FTC to provide partial refunds to anyone who paid for DeVry classes
- $50,600,000 in loan forgiveness and debt forgiveness benefits to anyone who owes money to DeVry
These funds are available to anyone who attended DeVry between 2008 and 2015, with some of the students receiving money, and others qualifying for student loan debt relief benefits (debt forgiveness on their DeVry-related student loan debt).
But better yet, these funds are one of the only benefits packages providing Private Student Loan Forgiveness, in addition to the standard Federal Loan Forgiveness offered by so many other programs.
Typically, whenever programs like this are announced, benefits are only available to people with Federal Student Loans, so it’s pretty amazing that these benefits cover private student loans too.
And one thing to keep in mind about DeVry forgiveness is that no matter when you attended DeVry, you’re still eligible to submit a Borrower’s Defense Application for having the ENTIRETY of your Federal loans forgiven, so don’t let the timing thing throw you off, as that’s only applicable to the already settled lawsuit.
What Loans Are Being Refunded?
DeVry University is being forced to cancel all unpaid balances for any private student loans issued by the school between September 1st, 2008, and September 30th, 2015, so if you attended during that time period, you’re in for a major windfall.
[NOTE: These dates only apply to the lawsuit settlement that already occurred! EVERYONE is eligible to submit a Borrower’s Defense Application against the school, no matter when they attended.]
In addition, DeVry is going to also be forced to cancel $20,250,000 in debt owed to the school for tuition, books, lab fees and other costs associated with attending their academic programs, pretty much guaranteeing that anybody who went to DeVry during the impacted time period is going to get some kind of financial assistance.
The FTC is also going to host their own refund program, but the details surrounding that have not yet emerged. Be on the lookout for details from DeVry, as they’ve been told they must inform all previous students within 30 days after the judgment gets entered (meaning, very soon).
UPDATE: Reader Anthony reported that DeVry promised to contact everyone eligible for this forgiveness program by January 18th, 2017. If you did not hear from them before that deadline, but you are sure that you should qualify for some relief, then you need to contact DeVry, the Department of Education, or the Student Loan Ombudsman Group and start pushing for your benefit.
UPDATE 2: Reader Anthony also found out that anyone with loans issued by another institution other than DeVry (like Federal loans, or Private loans from a bank) will not be automatically eligible for the FTC’s DeVry debt cancellation program, but will have to use the route of filing a Borrowers Defense Against Repayment to get their loans forgiven.
The good news about the Borrower’s Defense route is that it makes you eligible for a complete discharge of all your loans, and even potentially refunds for any payments you’ve already issued, compared to a measly check for $280.
NOT ALL DeVry-Related Loans Being Forgiven…
While I initially interpreted the FTC Settlement as stating that any debt at all related to DeVry’s educational costs would be forgiven, reader Anthony provided another great analysis of some specific details of the program, and it turns out that only loans issued directly from DeVry itself are being automatically cancelled and refunded.
That means that if your loans originated elsewhere, say from the Federal Government, or from a private bank, then you won’t be automatically included in the cancellation and refund initiative.
On the bright side, this doesn’t mean you can’t receive forgiveness, as both the Student Loan Ombudsman Group AND the Department of Education’s StudentAid.ed.gov representative indicated that anyone with outstanding DeVry debt would be easily able to qualify for a Borrower’s Defense Against Repayment discharge, especially since the Government itself has already proven beyond a reasonable doubt that DeVry actively misled students, violated state laws, and essentially ripped people off.
If you still owe money for DeVry educational programs, you need to visit my page about the Borrowers Defense Against Repayment Provision, learn about the application process, and submit your application ASAP. These applications are taking months to get approved, so it’s best to get yours turned in as quickly as possible.
One thing to keep in mind – this is a one shot chance at getting complete student loan forgiveness, so don’t screw it up. It’s worth spending a few hundred or even a couple thousand dollars consulting with an attorney to get their assistance in creating your Borrowers Defense Against Repayment letter.
Old News About the DeVry Lawsuit
NEWS ALERT: On Thursday, December 13th 2018 the Department of Education announced that they’ll begin immediately approving $150,000,000 in Borrower’s Defense to Repayment Discharges for up to $150,000,000 previously held up in arbitration.
There’s a very good chance that DeVry borrowers will see their loans forgiven in this wave of forgiveness, and DOE began notifying borrowers of their discharge approvals on Friday December 14th, stating that the forgiven debt would be eliminated within 30 to 90 days.
If you’ve already applied for a DeVry Discharge, make sure to watch your emails closely, and if you’ve been waiting to submit an application, I would highly suggest that you send it in today to increase your odds of being approved during this round of approvals!
Frequently Asked Questions
There are lots of questions about this forgiveness program, since the news just broke, and so many students are being impacted.
My favorite part about this story isn’t that tons of people will be getting money back, but that just like the ITT Tech Student Loan Forgiveness Program, and the Corinthian Colleges Student Loan Forgiveness Program before it, another For-Profit School is being punished for aggressively pursuing profits above student’s best interest.
Anyway, here are some of the most common questions related to DeVry’s Debt Forgiveness Program:
What Did DeVry Do Wrong?
According to the complaint filed with the FTC, DeVry ran ads on Television, the Radio, Online and in Traditional Print Media claiming that their job placement rates and income levels were significantly higher than what actual students reported, which is false advertising, and highly illegal.
The Department of Education investigated some of their claims, such as one stating that 90% of their graduates since 1975 were able to find jobs in their study areas within just six months of graduation, finding that DeVry couldn’t provide any proof for the claims.
DeVry also falsely claimed that their graduates with Bachelor’s Degrees earned, on average, 15% higher incomes a year after graduating than graduates from other colleges and universities, and again, failed to unearth any proof for the statement.
These statements, are what’s known as “false advertising”, which is entirely illegal.
Fortunately, if you’re a DeVry student or graduate who attended during the affected time period (any time after 2008), then you may be eligible for restitution via the DeVry Student Loan Forgiveness & Repayment Program (I made this name up, it’s not official).
How Do I Claim My DeVry Forgiveness Benefit?
If you were eligible for the automated forgiveness refunds issued as part of the FTC settlement, then you should have already received them.
If you think you should have received one, but haven’t yet, then you need to contact your Loan Servicer to request information on the process and figure out what went wrong.
The FTC’s official page on the program said that students should have been “on the lookout for information… on your eligibility for a refund or for a notification from DeVry explaining your debt forgiveness”, but we all know that DeVry could have “forgotten” to include everyone on those notifications…
The FTC also said that DeVry was supposed to inform the credit bureaus and debt collection agencies about this debt forgiveness program, and that they were supposed to inform you of your personal benefits as well, within 30 days after the court’s order was finalized, but that deadline has long passed, so again, if you didn’t hear from them, then it’s time to contact your loan servicing company.
If you’ve been struggling to get your diploma or academic transcripts from DeVry because of your failure to pay down outstanding debt related to their programs, then you’re in for some good news as well, because the school is being forced to issue diplomas and transcripts to all students and graduates, regardless of remaining debt.
Finally, the school was supposed to set up a toll-free phone number you could call if your credit report continues to show the wrong information about your DeVry-related debt, basically allowing you to call them on their BS and force them to fix your information with the credit bureaus, but I haven’t been able to find this number anywhere online so I am unable to share it with you all at this time.
Are DeVry Refunds Available Now?
Yes, the FTC refunds should have already been provided. If you think you’re eligible, but never received one, you need to call your loan servicing company to find out what went wrong.
Who is Eligible for DeVry Forgiveness Benefits?
Anyone who attended the school between January 1st, 2008 and September 30th, 2015, including people who completed degree programs, as well as those who didn’t.
How Can I Claim My Refund?
You should have received it already, but if you did not, then contact whoever services your loans to see if you really do qualify for the benefit.
Alternatively, if you want to pursue a Borrower’s Defense to Repayment Claim, then scroll up to the section of this page covering that information.
How Much Money Can I Get?
The FTC refunds were pretty weak (for most people) only providing an average of about $300. I did receive feedback from several visitors who got more, and many who got less.
Via the Borrower’s Defense path though, you could qualify for a 100% discharge of all outstanding loan debt, plus refunds for anything you’ve already paid back.
Do I Need to Pay Money for My Refund?
No! If a debt consolidation company or some other vendor contacts you offering to help you get your DeVry student loan forgiveness refund, then hang up the phone!
You’ll be working directly with the school to get this benefit – do NOT pay anyone else to help you get the funding, because that’s already certainly bound to be some sort of scam.
2020’s Best Student Loan Forgiveness Programs
Even if you can’t take advantage of the DeVry lawsuit, you probably do have access to some of the available student loan forgiveness programs currently on offer.
In fact, there are tons of ways to get help with students loans today, especially for people who need Help With Federal Student Loans, but keep in mind that there’s also more Help for Private Student Loans available now than ever before, so no matter what type of loans you have, you’re likely to be able to find some kind of support and relief.
Some of the most powerful financial assistance programs on offer this year are those offering forgiveness based on your income, employment, or other similar eligibility conditions, with most of these providing benefits to people working in certain high-need sectors.
Basically anyone with Federal loans will qualify for some form of Federal Student Loan Forgiveness at some point in the repayment process, so take a look at my Guides on Federal Forgiveness benefits, including:
- Federal Student Loan Forgiveness Programs Overview
- President Obama’s Student Loan Forgiveness Program
- The Pay As You Earn Student Loan Repayment Program
- The REPAYE Student Loan Repayment Program
- President Trump’s Student Loan Forgiveness Program
- The Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program
- Nursing Student Loan Forgiveness Programs
- Doctors & Dentists Student Loan Forgiveness Programs
- The Non-Profit Employee Student Loan Forgiveness Program
- Military Personnel Student Loan Forgiveness Programs
- Teacher Student Loan Forgiveness Programs
- Government Employee Student Loan Forgiveness Programs
- State-Based Student Loan Forgiveness Programs
But people with Private loans aren’t getting left in the dust like they used to either, as there are now more Private Student Loan Forgiveness Programs available than ever before too!
2020’s Best Student Loan Discharge Programs
Assuming can’t qualify for any of the forgiveness programs listed above, you’re still not out of luck, because there are also plenty of Student Loan Discharge Programs currently available, including some excellent options for those with Federal loans, like:
- The Borrower’s Defense Against Repayment Program
- Federal Student Loan Bankruptcy Discharges
- The Closed School Student Loan Discharge Program
To Get Help With Federal Student Loans
If you don’t qualify for any of the forgiveness or discharge programs above, don’t worry, because you may still be eligible for all sorts of other Federal assistance programs.
To figure out what benefits you may be able to utilize, take a look at my Guides on Federal Student Loan Relief:
- Federal Student Loan Bankruptcy
- Federal Student Loan Consolidation
- Federal Student Loan Delinquency & Default
- The Federal Student Loan Rehabilitation Program
- Federal Student Loan Wage Garnishment
- Federal Student Loan Deferment
- Federal Student Loan Forbearance
- Federal Student Loan Repayment Plans
To Get Help With Private Student Loans
If you have Private student loans, then look at my Guides on Private Student Loan Relief Programs, which you can find here:
- Private Student Loan Forgiveness Programs
- Private Student Loan Consolidation
- Private Student Loan Bankruptcy
- Private Student Loan Defaults
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Hello Tim, thank you for all the hard work and the detailed information about this program and what DeVry did.
I went to DeVry from November 2008 to June 2013 and graduated with an Associates in Network System Administration. I was going to go to my local community college for a similar associates degree that dealt with the computer technical field. But halfway through my Senior year of High School I had seen a TV ad for DeVry and googled them for more information which brought me to this page of their website back then (https://web.archive.org/web/20071214052242/http://www.devry.edu/) and seeing that information about average salary being $42,000 and 93% being hired in their field within 6 months caused me to abandon the thought of going to my community college and apply at DeVry. I now regret doing that because of how much student debt I accrued because I wasn’t aware of their cost of tuition until after completing the first semester. I should have quit then due to the cost but I figured that since I started down this path that I should complete it because I thought that was the sacrifice I needed to make to get the average salary. Would I be eligible to apply for the Borrower Defense to Repayment Loan Forgiveness?
Hi Vincent,
If I were you, I would apply for BDAR!
Hello my name is Rolando. I applied to Devry and when I was doing the enrollment process I was told that my financial aid would cover it but I was not aware that I was taking out a loan for the classes. I only went to the school for 1 semester and I have a $2,000 dollar loan. How would I go about applying, I know it said I to write a letter but who would I address the letter to?
Hi Rolando,
Check out my page on the Borrower’s Defense to Repayment Program.
I went to DeVry in Toronto Canada in 1988-1989. The had the same adds back then that claimed the same things about job placement odds and higher pay apon completion which was not true then either. Why is the settlement only going back to 2008 and why are Canadians not eligible?
Hi Andrew,
I don’t make the rules. Not sure.
I applied for the borrower’s defence deletion around early 2018 and have heard nothing back. I’ll never be able to repay the now 72k it’s grown to (was forced out in 2013 cuz loans ran dry before I could finish). I just want this off my back. I make less than min wage take home, I’m almost 47. All I wanted was to escape low wage.
It always fails for me. This did too apparently.
Hi Sarra,
BDAR Applications can take well over two years to get a response. You probably will end up waiting some time longer… there’s a HUGE backlog.
I’m struggling on whether I would qualify or not. I was apart of the first wave if the settlement. My issue is that I only chose to go to Devry BECAUSE of the advertisement on tv. I keep seeing “90% but I recall seeing 97% of their students get jobs after 6 most of graduation”. That sold me on choosing them. I was hit hard like alot of other people during 2008. But I had the option of going to my local community college. I struggle because I did get a job afterwards but the job was vaguely and loosely in the field of my chosen field. It was NOT a job that one could say was their dream job..lol…not by a long shot. It was a documents tech job with a 3rd party vendor. Anyway…I could not get hired at a hospital or physician(you know..where one would normally get a position in the med field). It took 2 yrs( I sent out resumes every day for 2 yrs)…and a certification to land something within my field. I was told from once company they dont accept graduates from Devry! I’m like wow! Anyway…it was because of the certification that I got my job…not Devry! But still, I’m at odds if I qualify or not……
Hi Lisa,
So, I’d try to apply for the BDAR Discharge if I were you.
Thank you for all of this information! I attended in 2010-2011. I filed my Borrower’s Defense YEARS ago (it seems). I called after 1 year and they said I would hear something if it was approved. That was before the last presidential election. I literally just got a message from Nelnet this month stating, “We have approved the forbearance you requested to postpone your payments through Federal Student Aid’s (FSA) Borrower Defense to Repayment Program effective 03/10/2018. Your forbearance will end on 12/05/2018, and we will send your monthly billing statement about three weeks before your next payment is due. You will receive a letter soon with more information about your deferment.” I’m confused what exactly this means, but this was the 1st time I’ve heard anything from anyone about it since I filed it.
Ok, so I pulled up documents. I filed my BDRC 12/18/2016. On 06/19/2017, I received an e-mail from the Dept. of Ed stating, “This email is being sent to update you on the current status of your claim for borrower defense to repayment. We are continuing to evaluate your claim but have not yet made a decision if the claim will be approved. Once a decision has been made on your claim, you will be notified of the decision. If it is determined that additional information is needed, we will reach out to request that information from you then. If you have chosen to have your loans placed on forbearance or stop collection activity while your claim is reviewed, we will continue to notify your servicer to extend that status until your claim has been decided.” I received my 1st notice from Nelnet about a forbearance on 12/7/2017, stating it would end December 2018. I now received 3 emails from Nelnet from 10/4/19, 10/5/19 and 11/5/19 for forbearance. I hope it gets approved!!
Contact your loan servicer.
Hi Tim. Thank you for taking the time to put all of this information here. I personally have had a horrible experience with Devry. After seeing countless advertisements on TV and hearing them on the radio promising great opportunities for all of their graduates, I began to think that Devry would be an excellent fit for me and I could get into a great trade working with computers after finishing their program. I decided to attend Devry in 2006, and began talking to a councilor there about how to sign up and const of attendance. I was informed I was eligible for ~$4000.00 in federal loans, but I still needed ~$3000.00 to cover their tuition costs. I informed them that I had horrible credit and would not be able to get approved for a private loan, and my parents would never cosign (I was 21 years old at the time and considered a dependent student). “Dont worry about that” they told me, “we can act as an endorser on your loan” they added. I thought this was weird, but was very excited to try to get my life on track, so I agreed to this and went through the process. I was magically approved for a private plus loan with Devry as my endorser, and I began classes. After about a week of attending, I had some personal issues and had to withdrawal from the school I contacted them and was told everything was good, and that they were sorry to see me leave.
Fast forward about 2 years, I get notification from Sallie Mae that my deferment period was up for my private loan and that I needed to start repayment. I informed them that I had withdrawn from the school and there should be no loans that I am responsible for my week at Devry. Well, come to find out, they never actually withdrew me, and just failed me in all of my classes. Unfortunately I was a child and not smart enough to keep all of the correspondence, so it became a case of my word against theirs. Fast forward another 11 years, I have been fighting them and fighting them, until I finally gave in and accepted a settlement on the private loan (which had risen to close to $20,000.00 after fees and interest) just to get it off of my credit. Unfortunately, the federal loans that were taken out by Devry are still there waiting for me to finally finish school to come out of deferment. I have contacted Navient (who now services my loans) multiple times regarding this, without any success. I would very much like to apply for forgiveness from my Devry loans, but I have no idea how to do so, since I attended them back in 2006. It would be great to get some help and advice from someone who knows the system.
Hi Daniel,
Yeah, did you try to pursue a BDAR Discharge? I’d be going after that. And you file it against the school, not the servicing company. Don’t worry about including any issues from the servicer, because none of that will help your case.
I busted my rear to pay off all my student loans. I received 2 checks from DeVry for various amounts. Going on 9 years and I still don’t have a job in my field.
Even though my loans are paid off in full can I still potentially receive additional refunds via the Borrower’s Defense Application?
Hi Matthew,
No. If you paid them off, you won’t be eligible for BDAR.
Noticed an update this week…
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/08/30/devos-forgiving-student-loans-1697959
Hi Tim,
I unfortunately attended both Heald and Devry, I remember hearing that if you apply for student loan forgiveness that it would void the degree that you earned. Just like everyone else who was deceived by these schools I attended because of their false claims. It took me 6 years to finally get a good paying job. What will happen to my degree if I apply for the Borrowers defense against repayment
Hi Santiago,
Ouch – yeah… here’s how it works actually; your degree is not voided, but if you hadn’t finished the degree, then your credits would be sacrificed. If you already graduated, you can apply for and receive Borrower’s Defense and keep your degree.
Thank you for the information. I am feeling really overwhelmed. I’m pretty competent and usually fairly good at communicating, but I don’t want to screw this up and am considering trying to find a lawyer to help me with the paperwork. I haven’t found anyone local who specifically advertises to help with this. What type of lawyer should I be searching for?
I attended DeVry 2009-2012. I had told the adviser that I met with that I was only there at the request of my husband, because I did not believe we could afford for me to go to school. She assured me that being a low-income family was not an issue because my education would be covered by loans and grants and I would not be required to start paying off my loans until several months after graduating and that over 90% of their students were placed in high paying positions within their field of study within 6 months of graduation. She told me that the majority of those that were not employed in their field in that time frame had decided to work in a different field or had decided it was not the right time for them to start working. She gave the example of women deciding to raise their children before entering the workforce.
I enjoyed DeVry and was happy with my teachers and the education I was receiving. I made the Dean’s List almost every semester and had 3.75 GPA. In 2012 I submitted my class enrollment papers and got back an email saying that I had exhausted my Student Loans and could not be enrolled. I met with an adviser who told me that the only way I would be able to finish my degree would be if I could get approved for private loans, which I could not. I now owe almost $90,000 in debt and have no degree to show for it.
All of the email communication with them was through my student email which was disabled long ago and I never thought to make copies of communications. All I really have is my word about what was said to me.
It’s hard to say because there aren’t any specialists I’m aware of who focus on these issues, but I do think you’ve got a really good start here since you have some specific arguments to make about what the school did that was illegal – they are definitely not supposed to be telling you that over 90% of students were placed in high paying positions within their field of study within 6 months of graduation – that alone is absolutely enough to qualify for a BDAR discharge, when the program is working properly.
Make sure that you provide as much documentation as you can about the promises you were offered, and that you explain how they impacted your decision to attend the school. Read my post about How to Get a BDAR Discharge Approved for additional details and things to think about when filling out your application.
And good luck!
I am in the same boat as you on this…exact same scenario, exact outcome. Only difference is I went for my Bachelors degree in computer sciences. Never received a degree because I had one year left and my loans were exhausted. Another downfall was the fact that all correspondences were done through the DeVry provided email. I no longer have access to these emails either due to how long ago I attended.
I earned a Master’s Degree at Devry. Why didn’t I qualify for the DeVry Lawsuit, Loan Forgiveness & Discharge Program?
Hi Denise,
Not everyone does. Read the details I shared in my post and you’d find out who got refunds.
Keep in mind that the refunds sent were tiny. Some people got like $200. A better option for dealing with school debt is pursuing the Borrower’s Defense to Repayment Program, which could let you eliminate your loans entirely.
My daughter and I filed claims against DeVry in Nov. 2018. We both received emails from DOE on Dec. 4, 2018 that the applications have been received. Being the pack rat that I am, I have an entire accordion file filled with all brochures and information that I ever received from DeVry so I loaded up my application with copies of this information. Having the brochures, contract, and student manual gave me lots of info to fill out the application. Now to sit patiently and wait for a reply!
Great Job Janet!
Make sure that you share those materials with others online! There are LOTS of other people who need help with their BDAR applications!
Good luck!
Tim,
I enrolled into DeVry back in August 2018 and they completely screwed me over leaving me with over $30k in student loan debt. They falsely advertised in their brochures and even lied to be via email about their engineering program that turns out to be garbage claims of being a real engineering degree. I didn’t find out about the discrepancies until changes in their brochures were made and it was already too late for me. I wasted almost 3 years of my time at DeVry and ended up transferring to CSUF in spring of 2017 upon discovery of DeVry’s false advertisements and claims; I basically had to start all over from scratch because nothing transferred over even though they’re supposedly accredited. Had I known about their false claims, I would have never pulled out any loans from DeVry or even bother enrolling into their fake school. I didn’t waste any time and indeed applied for the Borrowers Defense during the time that I made the transition to CSUF in 2017(the transfer was a complete nightmare, that’s another story I’ll have to tell at another time). I’ve included email correspondence, brochures, catalogs, and screen captures of proof for the school’s misleading claims to make my case. It’s been about 2 years now and I have not heard anything about my application, and like you said, there is no way to check the status of my application.
Today, I come home for summer break to find out that DeVry hit me with a bill from their accounting department, UAS, asking me to pay back the Perkin’s loan when I was attending DeVry. I’m just dumbfounded with the generated bill because I’m still going to school full-time at CSUF and DeVry has the audacity to bill me when I’m still going to school! I will have to call them on Monday to confront them about this. I also got the 2nd round of the FTC check, a measly $45; how about the $30K that they screwed me over.
I was never contacted by DeVry about getting any of my loans forgiven. Aside from the borrower’s defense, where do I go from here in getting my loans from DeVry discharged while I’m still going to school at CSUF?
Hi Ben,
You should definitely pursue a BDAR discharge here. I would absolutely go after them if they made false promises, lied about accreditation, credit transfer, etc. Read my full post on How to Get a BDAR Discharge Approved for additional details and ideas.
So I called McCarthy Law PLC at 877-317-0455 hoping they might help me file a Borrower’s Defense Application for my Private Student Loans. Jessie Brown informed me they have been getting a lot of calls regarding this DeVry Lawsuit, even though there’s not much they can do about it. However he said he could help me by negotiating with the credit card company to reduce my remaining $24, 000 balance and $600/month payment down to $15 000 and $400/month. In order for him to do this though, I’d have to not pay the credit card company for 6 months, and default on the agreement, lowering my credit score…. I was really hoping I could get a full refund for the full amount of my tuition fees and everything. There’s probably some money still left in that settlement account and I want. How can I get it?
Thank you for providing this very valuable content.
Hi Tom,
Yeah, McCarthy Law doesn’t deal with BDAR at all, and Private Loans aren’t eligible for BDAR either, so no one can help you with that.
McCarthy Law focuses on the exact process you outlined – defaulting, then negotiating a lower debt settlement, hooking you up with a new loan for the lesser amount, significantly reducing what you owe and what you’re forced to pay each month as well.
There’s no way you’re going to get a full refund on private loans, there is no process for making that happen.
I sorta want to go to My old Devry School and print thousands of copies of… Do not go to this scam College. Is this legal..? lol
Tim, is it too late to apply for borrowers defense?
No, not at all! While Betsy DeVos is side-lining the program and trying to prevent approvals from getting distributed, you’ll still want to submit an application because it could take years for the DOE to even review your case. Hopefully, by the time they get around to it, President Trump will have lost the next election and the new Democratic President will have put someone else in charge of DOE who is NOT waging an all out war on ordinary Americans. If that happens, you’ll get your loans forgiven.
Hi Tim are you still taking questions about Devry
I’m always taking questions about anything!
Say Tim I do appreciate all the information that you are passing on the the Devry student community. However I graduated in 2012 with a bachelor’s degree in computer information. My question is, I use my military GI Bill to pay for my education. Because Devry lied to me about job placement, as well as being a Devry graduate that would be paid more. How do the Military students that don’t have loans and have wasted their education money on Devry be justified. Devry have not placed me in any job. I am not getting paid more because I am a graduate from Devry. In other words I feel like my education money have been wasted because of the lies from Devry. Help if you can please.
Thanks in advance
Greg.
Hi Gregory,
As far as I know, there isn’t a way to get back GI Bill benefits, but you could try contacting someone at the VA, someone at DOD, or perhaps the Student Loan Ombudsman Group (a group of Government-backed attorneys who offer free legal advice on student loans) to see if there’s anything they can do to help. I think it’s a long-shot, unfortunately, but it’s worth sending some emails or placing some phone calls.
Hey Tim,
As sad is it will be but ill take money given any time. The FTC Settlement is doing another round of checks…lol
https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/cases-proceedings/refunds/devry-refunds-debt-forgiveness
im guessing by doing simple math looks like it will be $50-$150…depending on what you paid…
Yeah, I’ve heard from some other people who have already received those FTC checks. This is a pittance compared to getting entire loan balances forgiven. I don’t even know why the FTC wastes their time on this. $50 – $150 isn’t going to help anyone in any way, whatsoever.
I received a whopping $149….
Exactly… BDAR is a much better option.
I graduated from DeVry in 98′ never received a job based on my Degree. BS ( Operations Management/Logistics) still paying on a 50,0000 student loan debit for degree that’s worthless. How come I’m not in entitled to have my student loan wiped out?
Felicia,
You may be. Did you even read my post? Did you look into options for Borrower’s Defense Discharges? Have you looked at the many Federal Loan Forgiveness Programs available?
When I received my refund check back in 2017, there was literature inside telling me I could apply for Borrower’s Defense, which I did that very same day. I haven’t heard anything at all and it’s worrying me. My loans were not through DeVry, they were through the Federal Government (over $80K worth). Has anyone with a similar situation to mine heard anything at all? Nelnet has approved my forbearance for the time being, still waiting on Navient to hopefully do the same.
Hi Rita,
It’s GOOD that your loans were through the Federal Government, because any private loans would NOT be eligible for BDAR. Many people are also still waiting on responses for BDAR applications – this is one of the slowest moving programs I’ve ever seen in ten years of watching this industry. Hang tight and you should get a response eventually. Unfortunately, there’s not really anything that you can do to expedite the process. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, and even President Trump himself, hate this program, so it’s an uphill battle every step of the way.
Rita I submitted in 2017 right after I got the check and letter advising me to file for it. I’ve been following up with my US Senator to help knock on the Department of Education’s door a bit harder.
Hi Tim, I have been watching this blog for 2 years now. Thank you for your support and knowledge. I still have no word about my loan forgiveness. I did however just receive an email stating a second round of checks will be issued from the FTC. I did receive full coverage from my Devry in house loan when the first round of payments where dispersed. My loan has been in forbearance for over two years and the lender states it will be up soon, but I still have no word from BDAR.
Hi Ken,
Yeah, the FTC keeps offering rounds of payments, but they’re so small that they’re unlikely to actually help anyone in the long-run. The Borrower’s Defense to Repayment Program is a much better option, but we need to get rid of Betsy DeVos and her for-profit buddies before those start getting approved again en masse. Keep your fingers crossed that President Trump fails to win reelection in 2020, and we’ll see significant progress once the Democrats put their own people in charge of DOE.
I am in the same situation. I just received a second FTC refund check, called the FTC to verify if cashing the check would disqualify my application for BDAR and the lady I spoke said no… very condescendingly over and over. I recorded the call in case it may be admissible as evidence in future possible litigation. I haven’t heard anything from the DoE, been waiting over 2 years. Hope I get some relief, I’d love to buy a home and this is making it all but impossible with a $79K student loan debt to attend DeVry with nothing resembling a career in my field of study. Please update if you have any news related to this, I’d appreciate it as well as thousands of others I am sure.
Good idea recording that call! You never know what you’ll need in case it comes down to some kind of legal battle.
BDAR is basically being totally screwed up by Betsy DeVos. She is the reason that Federal Student Loan Forgiveness Programs aren’t working as intended, as she’s essentially put PSLF, BDAR, and basically every other HELPFUL program on pause to protect her friends at the for-profit colleges and student loan servicing companies.
Unfortunately, things probably won’t turn around until President Trump is replaced with a Democratic party candidate who looks a little more favorably on individual American borrowers, rather than corporations.
BTW – I try not to get political, but it’s impossible to avoid it in here. The Republicans are bad news when it comes to student loans, unless you’re a school or student loan servicing company.
I was just finishing my degree with DeVry in 2008 so this lines up exactly with my experience.
I received a degree that only many years later did I realize was pretty much worthless. It was essentially an introduction to programming and simply finishing the degree alone in no way made me eligible for jobs in the field.
I did come across Borrower’s Defense a couple years ago, but I kind of dismissed it because I don’t personally have emails or brochures to prove what the recruiter said to me and my parents. I definitely remember them touting that around 85% of graduates got jobs in the field after 6 months. I never landed a job in the field.
In addition, I transferred to another campus after my first term. After I moved and showed up on my first day they told me that my new campus didn’t carry my major! They literally created a program for me because they messed up so bad. Should have ended the whole thing there. Only a year or so after I graduated did I realize they completely discounted my major altogether. I was completely taken for a ride.
Based on my story, in your opinion, is this enough evidence from all the stories you’ve heard? Is verbal testimony enough?
Hi There,
I think verbal testimony can be enough, if it’s rock solid. The other thing you can try to do to improve your claims is use the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine (https://archive.org/web/) to look at old versions of the school’s website and try to dig up some claims like what you were being told. I would try this because if you can find some bad claims around the time that you applied, that’d give you much better evidence to back up your story.
Will do. Thanks Tim for maintaining this site.
Hey its me again, took me way too long to do this, but I dredged up some “statistical” documents from Wayback Machine like you said so I actually have the pdfs now, which is great.
My question is, how do I know if these numbers are real/fake or the same numbers that people who fell under the lawsuit used to prove that what they did was illegal? Or one step further, how do I find out what the exact crime actually is? False advertising?
I’ll summarize the statistics and then provide the links to the documents below for anyone else to use if it helps their case. From the DeVry web site from 2005 graduates (the same year I enrolled, so this is what I would have been shown by the recruiter): US combined statistics for “Graduates who actively pursued and obtained employment and those who were already employed in education-related careers within 180 days of graduation” is 85% employment for CIS degrees (my degree sector) and for my specific campus they show 100% employment rate (for my degree sector). Note it never says employment in that job sector nor does it say what the employment rate is for my DEGREE, just for the category of degree 🙂
I know I got duped, but I want to know the exact crime I can site when I actually go to submit this borrower defense application. Which I realize I’ll have to probably talk to a lawyer. It would be life changing to not have to pay this loan.
Here’s the links:
https://web.archive.org/web/20060908095340/http://www.devry.edu/whydevry/gradstats_pdf/GES-USCombined-6-06.pdf
https://web.archive.org/web/20060908094737/http://www.devry.edu/whydevry/gradstats_pdf/GES-Fremont-6-06.pdf
Tim
Nelnet has approved my foreberance. Should I continue making interest payment atleast or not? I am concerned that if they deny my forgiveness I will end up with all the added interest. Do you know what others in the similar situation are doing?
Thanks
Yes! Keep making interest payments otherwise your interest will accumulate and you’ll end up owing more money when coming back from forbearance.
I filed my Borrowers defense back in 2017 it is still under review, but you can call number 1-855-279-6207 and they can tell you if it is still under review or denied. If it is still under review they will email your loan provider and put your loans in forbearance for a certain amount of time. I did not seek help when I filed out the application so hope things go well. I spoke with them this morning and they told me no time frame when the review process is over, but to call them back if I need to put my loans back in forbearance.
Hi C,
Thanks for the additional details! I’m sure this will help others in the same situation. Good luck on getting an approval!
Hi Tim,
First, thanks for creating and maintaining such a great resource that has helped so many people.
Second, I have a specific question about BDAR – I attended Devry from September 2007-2012. THE main reason I chose to attend Devry over the local community college is the claims within this brochure about job placement rates (this is a copy from the Wayback machine) – https://web.archive.org/web/20071020095111/http://www.devry.edu/whydevry/gradstats_pdf_term/GES-Columbus-6-07.pdf
This brochure has the “90% of graduates” claim for the “past ten years” within it. I was told the same by the entrance counselors as well. Although this falls outside of the FTC’s January 2008 dates are these claims by Devry also without merit with nothing to back them up? I am in the process of filing for BDAR and want to make sure all my ducks are in a row.
Hi James,
Thanks for the kind words, I really do appreciate it! Next – while I’m not an attorney and don’t want to provide legal advice…
That looks like a very solid piece of evidence! I would absolutely use that in my own BDAR Application if I were submitting one.
Good luck!
Hello Tim,
I attended DeVry from the July 2007-November 2011, and the same exact fraudulent materials the FTC sued DeVry for were being used then as well. The admission counselor had posters all over his office of:
-graduates making $40k+ a year at entry level in my field,
-90% of students working in their fields within 6 months,
-inflated graduation rates, etc…
However I was never given a physical pamphlet and the old emails have been destroyed by my previous email provider. Additionally I was told I could choose to take classes online or on campus, even though only a handful of classes were available on campus and the same courses were much more expensive online. The counselor also promised I would find success in these programs, even keeping in his office for 3 hours to convince me of this. The job placement was also a joke, it consisted of serving jobs and retail associate positions amongst others that required no degree. There were times holds were placed on my account until I paid them thousands of dollars at a time, the credits were non-transferable and my transcripts were withheld until I paid them another $6000. As a single mom of three, I gave it my all and ended up without a degree and only one semester away from graduating. With $90k+ in student loan debt and an increasing balance I feel pretty naive, used and hopeless. Do I have a chance to get my loans discharged without any solid proof? I don’t know where to turn! Thanks so much for any help you may have to offer, you are very much appreciated!
Hi Kayla,
I would still fill out a BDAR Discharge and write up as much detail as you can about what was promised, who it was promised by and how that impacted your decision to borrow money to attend the school. Even if you don’t have photos of those posters or emails from the admissions counselor, if you can clearly explain what they said, you may still get an approval.
Also – try using the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine to look at old versions of their website and see if you can find any illegal marketing claims. They may be floating around and those would definitely count as evidence!
Tim, good advice regarding the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. You might want to give credit where credit is deserved. If you remember, I was the one that emailed you the DeVry University pdf documents as well as the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine URL that you just mentioned. You have done a fantastic job providing information on BDAR. Thank you!
Absolutely! Thank you for your work on coming up with the strategy Roland! That was excellent web-sleuthing and I think your idea has helped out MANY people!
Hello Tim/Roland,
I did a thorough search for the PDF documents provided by Roland, but I was unable to find it anywhere on this site. Would you happen to have the specific URL? The only PDFs I see are from GoogleAds.
Thank you.
Hi Andersen,
Stuff is going up and disappearing all the time online. Try Google searching for details.
Hello Tim,
I attended online Devry between 2010-2012…. I withdrew from classes in 2012 due to work schedule and seeing the total tuition fee, which i had no idea was so much until after i signed up. Although I have no physical proof, I chose to sign up for Devry online vs a local university due to brochures and email ads about increased jobs potentials after graduation. Even though I withdrew before I graduated, can I qualify? and what documentation would i need, since it was about 7 years ago. Please let me know your recommendations!!!
Hi Aldric,
What did these brochures and email ads say? Can you find a record of any of the email ads?
Schools are allowed to make claims like “getting a degree will increase your job potential”, but they can’t say things like “90% of our graduates find work in their field”, or “you’ll earn $50,000 – $75,000”.
To get approved for BDAR, you have to make very specific claims. Did you read my entire post? I go through the sorts of things that work, and those that don’t, in detail.
I don’t know if anyone else is in this boat but I will take a shot. I attended DeVry in 2005-2007 and then again in 2009-2011. While attending there was a website they directed me to to keep track of my loans which I had to sign off on. Each time I went on to sign off the balance was high but still acceptable as I knew it was an expensive school to attend. After graduating I went to consolidate all my loans and to my big surprise it was $30k more than what I had signed off on. I felt deceived and angry but I don’t know what to do about it or how to prove it. Quite frankly I don’t not even remember the website or have any email communication as it was so long ago.
I feel like I am stuck with this unimaginable debt and I don’t know what to do. Any work of guidance from anyone?
Hi Kay,
You’re going to have to do some more research and try to sort out the details here because this isn’t a compelling argument and it will certainly be denied approval.
I would focus more on what you were told, promised, lied about, etc., in your BDAR application. You’re going to have a much easier time if you can point at fraudulent claims and deceptive marketing practices.
Hi Tim I attended DeVry from 1998 to 2000, my first semester I made the deans list. The second semester the entire class was failing due to poorly spoken English by the teacher. I stopped attending classes, but the rest of the class ended up passing, just pushed through, their grades were adjusted by the school. This is entirely unfair, third semester I returned after feeling depressed I decided to push on and retake the second semester, I finished the program with a 3.3 GPA, but i feel I was treated unjustly does that make me eligible for the borrowers defense program?
Hi Mark,
No, what you’ve explained here is nowhere near enough to qualify for a BDAR discharge. Discharges are for people who faced ILLEGAL ACTIVITY on behalf of the school. The school needs to have committed fraud, violating some State or Federal law, in order for your BDAR Discharge to be approved. You definitely had a bad experience with a poor teacher, but that’s not going to cut it.
Hi Tim,
I attended DeVry from July 2014 – May 2016 and I graduated with Bachelor Degree in Accounting, I returned in July 2016 and since then I have been working on my Master Degree and I only have one more class to graduate. Originally I wanted to register for Accounting degree program, but the student advisor told me it would be much better if I register for Technical Management program, because I will be able to find a better paying job much faster. Technical Management program does not give you any job qualifications. It is a mixture of some HR classes and some Accounting classes. Since I was so excited to go back to school, I didn’t really check her words and I took her very seriously. I was told that a lot of students now register for this program, because it gives you a lot of opportunities.
After 3 quarters, I decided than I wanted to go back to original program, Accounting.
I did received the $280 check in July 2016 and I did do anything else. Do you believe that I might qualified for any additional forgiveness programs?
Thank you,
Hi Agnes,
This isn’t a really good case for a BDAR Discharge. I would look at my Guide to the Borrower’s Defense to Repayment Program for details on how to fill out the application. I think you got a little bit of bad advice here, but it doesn’t really sound like anything illegal was done to you.
Hi Tim,
I attended Devry Keller School of Management from 2007-2009 where I graduated with a masters. I have some of the emails sent to me by the school that helped convinced me to attend. The phone calls are what did it for me. They were so convincing the degree would advancd my career along with their promise of help finding that higher paying job. I still owe 39k can I get help with my loans? I to this day wish I had never gone as the degree has not helped me career wise. It did help me go into debt. Hopeful there is help out there for me. My loans were with Salie Mae but now are Dept of Ed loans.
Hi Deanne,
You’ve got to prove that the school committed fraud against you, and there are very specific rules for what constitutes illegal behavior on their part. Read through my entire post, as I outline specific examples of the ways to qualify for a BDAR Discharge. If you feel like the school committed illegal activity against you, then submit a Borrower’s Defense to Repayment application against them.
Hello,
I am just now discovering this, I started Devry in July 2018 and I am still attending. What should I do to be apart of the loan forgiveness?
Thank you
Hi Keshinia,
Read my entire post.
I’m kind of with Keshinia. I read through the entire post (more than once), but it almost sounds like you had to have the school make these offenses against you prior to 2015. I didn’t start with DeVry until 2017 and have had nothing but issues from the start. I am glad I came upon this post, however, before attempting to file, I want to make sure that post 2015 counts. I can give detailed examples if needed, but the most recent being that I was told in order to proceed with my education (for one additional class) that I needed to extend my loans to cover it. After signing the paperwork to extend my loans, DeVry cancelled my class and told me it was a mistake that I didn’t need that class after all. I asked what to do about the fact that my loans had been extended and I got a simple “sorry, it was just a mistake. You will still owe the loan amount and the interest for the loan.” That was the icing on the cake, for me, when reading this post.
Hi Myon,
Yeah – there’s no 2015 limit. If you were defrauded by the school, and you can prove that to the Department of Education in your BDAR Application, then you’ll qualify for a Borrower’s Defense Discharge.
thanks! I’m on it, because they are now demanding more money from me and not allowing me to take the exam I need to be completely finished, due to their mistakes.
I attended DeVry (Georgia) from Oct 2006 to Oct 2007 to complete my BS degree, most of the credit I attained while serving in the USAF, and after retiring in July 2006, I wanted to complete my degree. That final year of classes cost me over $10,000 which I paid for over 10 years, but paid off in 2016. I have called the hotline number but was told that I didn’t qualify because I was outside the timeline window (Jan 2008 – 2015). I continued to go to college under the military Yellow Ribbon program, so whereas I have 2 Masters degrees and the Bachelors Degree, I have been unable to secure a good paying job. With 24 years of military communications background, and over 10 years in Education communications and technical support, I still only make under $20 per hour. Is there anything that can be done for reimbursement of money already paid to the loans, and not just debt forgiveness. To find out that the average “payment” to former students is only $280 is absurd.
Hi Richard,
If I were you I’d look into the Borrower’s Defense Against Repayment Program. I think that’ll be your only chance for getting any help.
Great article! I am going to start this process now! However, I have on questions on the enrollment dates. I enrolled in the Summer of 2006 and graduated in the Spring of 2008. Does that still qualify me for this program?
Thanks
Hi Chris,
Which program are you talking about here? If you’re thinking of applying for a Closed School Loan Discharge, that’s not going to work since you graduated. You have to have NOT graduated in order to be eligible for the forgiveness benefit.
Hi Tim, I attended Dvry in 2010 to ear a BA, but I did not graduated, so far I’ve been paying my loan and is almost paid off. Can I still qualify for a discharge, or perhaps even a refund of what I have paid?
Thank you
Hi Josh,
It’s possible you might be able to. It doesn’t matter if you graduated or not, it’s all about proving that you were defrauded.
Just checking in yet again….i heard the news release about notifications going out Dec 14 and I haven’t received anything. Upon logging into FedLoan, my big giant balance is still there. I’ve been in contact every few weeks with my US Senator (Collins – Maine) and they haven’t had any updates either. I have been taking courses but being a University employee, the tuition waiver makes them largely free and does put my loans on pause).
Fingers crossed….still…!
Hi Paul,
These things move ever so slowly, but there’s progress being made every day. We just saw the Department of Education issue $150,000,000 in forgiveness benefits, and only a few days later, saw another big ruling against Navient in the State Attorney Generals lawsuits, which is a great sign that things are headed the right direction. Don’t give up yet!
I attended DeVry under the years specified in the law suit. I applied for the borrower defense program and sent a letter; along with the court documents outlining the discharge for students that attended during my years to Secretary DeVos and they moved my loan to FedLoan. I received a special forbearance until 2019; however, I am receiving interest during this timeslot. My loan still has not been forgiven, which is my full goal and purpose. This can potentially hurt my DTI when time for my home purchase. What alternative options do I have? I’m having my documentation reviewed now by a law firm, as it appears the only way I can have my loan truly forgiven is legally. Any additional suggestions/directions you can offer is greatly appreciated. The US Department of Education/Navient and now FedLoans are playing games and trying to keep students in their loans accurring interest and more. IT’S NOT RIGHT or FAIR and has become a national trillion dollar mess now.
Hi T.,
I think you’re doing all the right things by applying for Borrowers Defense, then having a law firm review the details. There’s really nothing else that you can do at this point to try and alter the balance any further – the Department of Education is stalling as much as they can to try and rack up as much debt as possible; this is basically Betsy DeVos’s plan, and one of the worst examples of public corruption that I’ve ever come across. HOPEFULLY the Democratic House will be able to at least call attention to this travesty, but we really need the Media to get behind this and start hammering DeVos and Trump on it nightly. Until that happens, or we get a new Democratic President, I’m not sure anything changes.
I’m in the same boat as you… I have been waiting over 2 years on Borrowers Defense against DeVry, referencing ftc/ny/mass/(settlements) ed notice / along with ads and my story. ATM it is still processing for over a year now. I believe that your interest will only be capped at one year and after that it will be credited since “the slow process”. It’s just a long sad deal for us with the wrong people at the wrong time… and my question to people if the FTC lawsuit affected 175,000 people… Why is there only like 12,000 Borrower Defense Claims on DeVry?… I’m guessing people just don’t know about this?
Hi Brock,
You may be excited to hear that the Department of Education just announced yesterday that they’re approving over $150,000,000 in Borrowers Defense Discharge Applications. Maybe you’ll be on the list!
My hopes are low… Tim
I did see that, but From what I read is that its mostly borrowers that had a closed school discharge that also summited Borrowers Defenses?
Hi Brock,
The big recent money allocated is aimed at Closed School Discharges, but there could be tons also directed to BDAR applications. There’s no way to be certain, but $150,000,000 is a lot of money, so it’s a good time to get your application in.
I believe the 150,000,000 million is for those who have had their schools closed – like IIT and Corinthian. DeVry is still operating.
Hi John,
Yeah, most of the money will go toward Closed School Discharges, but these same schools are the ones that are being slammed by Borrower’s Defense applications as well, and there’s a really good chance that there will be a bunch of overlap between the two programs. EVERYONE with a claim should be filing now.
Devry told me that I could get a job in a couple of months after I graduated. However they also took out a big loan in my name without my knowledge or consent as well as half of my pell grant. Which led me to paying for my books and fees out of my own money. Is there any advice you can give me that would help?
Sincerely,
Lila
Hi Lila,
If DeVry took out a loan in your name WITHOUT YOUR KNOWLEDGE OR CONSENT then you will certainly qualify for a Borrower’s Defense Discharge against them. I would start the process immediately, as there’s a huge backlog in applications (some people are waiting over 2 years now to hear back from the Department of Education), but you will certainly qualify for a discharge if this is true.
Hi Tim,
I attended DeVry for Undergrad (2004-2007) and Grad (2007-2011 – didn’t complete). When I visited the campus for information I was told the same recruiting numbers of 90%sucess and etc. I have student loans in 6 figures and not a job that I can afford to pay that with. My question is, the loan prior to 2008, should I be doing a BDAR and doing the Devry loan forgiveness program for the part after 2008? Or can I apply for the DeVry loan forgiveness for 2008 and later and still include that in the BDAR? I know my question is a bit confusing so hopefully you understand. Thank you for providing this information. It has given me a ray of hope, as currently I’m looking to pay my loans well into my 60s.
Hi Greesha,
What’s “90%success” refer to? What were you actually promised? If they told you that you could get a specific role/position, or earn a specific amount of money, then you should certainly file a BDAR claim, but you need to have an argument that accuses the school of having done something illegal, like making false promises, performing false advertising, fraud, etc.
Hi Tim,
I applied for the Borrower’s Defense a few months ago and still waiting for any response. I didn’t go through all the posts here but do you know off the top of your head if anyone has reported any success yet? And if so, what is the process? Should one expect a letter, email, or phone call?
Hi Yia,
Yes, thousands of people have received total forgiveness via Borrower’s Defense, but the wait is extremely long, and getting worse each month. I’ve had several people tell me that they’re waiting 2+ years now for a response from the Department of Education. The reason this is happening is that Betsy DeVos Hates Borrower’s Defense and wants it shut down entirely. She’s not putting enough staff or funds towards processing the discharge applications, purposefully slowing down the process to frustrate students from attempting to apply for the benefit.
Hello again Tim,
From what i’m gathering, The Borrowers Defense is still ongoing and processing claims, but super shortstaffed? Loans prior to july 2019 will still be under the old Borrower defense? but full/partial relief is still happening? or did partial relief stop temporality? Feeling hopeless on this…
Hi Brock,
You’ve got the right read – anyone who applied previously is still grandfathered in and has potential for full/partial relief. Betsy DeVos’s Proposed Student Loan Changes call for reforming the program significantly, but so far, her suggestions haven’t been approved, so BDAR is still an excellent opportunity to get loans discharged, but the lines have gotten longer and longer as everyone figures it out and submits their application. I’m getting reports of people waiting 2+ years for a response now.
Hi Tim,
Thanks for the Information! I’m a little confused, maybe you can help clear that up. The article states you qualify if you attended between 2008 and 2015. Anthony R. stated he graduated in 2004 and you said he had a good chance for DBAR. How would he qualify if he attended PRIOR to 2008?
I’m asking since I graduated in 2001, was made promises during admission that weren’t true, don’t make nearly the amount promised after 17 years in the field, and am still paying my student loans 17 years later.
Thank you for your time!
Hi Greg,
There’s a couple different programs being discussed here; first is the Government-funded DeVry forgiveness program, which required attending a certain time period, second is the Borrower’s Defense Against Repayment Program, which doesn’t have any timing requirements at all.
Hi, I read through the entire article and I’m praying this works. I called the Student loan helpline and a woman told me that I should just do their 240-month forgiveness plan for $995 even though I attended DeVry in 2011. I was in the military and I got into DeVry 2 months before I got deployed in 2012 so when I came back in 2013 I was told that I had thousands of dollars in student loan debt. Do you think I have a viable chance of being able to use the Borrowers Defense to get it all canceled?
Hi Malcolm,
Pretty much everybody has a CHANCE at getting a BDAR application for DeVry approved, but it all depends on how you write up your story. You need to prove that DeVry did something illegal to you. If you can explain that clearly, and it’s compelling enough to the person from the Department of Education who reviews your case, then you’ll get approved for a discharge.
I graduated from DeVry in 2004, before I started with DeVry I was considering going to another trade school but was told by DeVry advisors how students that graduate from DeVry make more money and how DeVry students are in big demand by employers. After getting an associates degree and being in the whole for $35k I could not afford to keep attending DeVry, I was even told that getting a Bachelors degree with DeVry will lead to top management placements with numerous employers. like I said I graduated back in 2004 and do not have names of people I spoke to more than 16 years ago, am I eligible to apply for BDAR ?
Hi Anthony,
You definitely have a good case for BDAR because DeVry promised you that their graduates make more money – this has been proven to be a lie, as they didn’t have any evidence to back up that claim. I would absolutely apply for a BDAR discharge, telling your story and providing as much detail as possible to document specifically what was promised to you. Good luck!
Hello, I attended DeVry and I had applied in May 2017 for Borrower’s Defense of Repayment. 3 months into the submission I had called federal student aid help line and they had acknowledged that they have my application on file. In March 2018 I have received letters from Nelnet saying my forbearance was approved and don’t have to pay anything until 6/2019. But I have yet to hear anything from them nor a letter. How long does it take? And does having a forbearance mean they are reviewing my application?
Hi Jan
Good question – and no one can tell you for certain, unfortunately, because each Servicer is handling the process differently and has different issues with timelines. Everybody is way backed up on dealing with BDAR applications, and it could be over a year before you hear back – easily. I would try contacting the Federal Student Aid Help Line again and see if they can give you an update…
Have you heard of anyone being approved who attended DeVry? I applied for the borrower defense in Nov 2016. I called today to find out if it’s going to take longer than the 12-18 months they said originally; they said it may take longer. They did just recently extend the forbearance, so I haven’t had to pay anything since I applied.
Hi Shelly,
Yeah – Betsy DeVos, the head of the Department of Education, has been trying to stop the forgiveness benefits from being issued to basically anyone (students of DeVry, Corinthian, etc.) by killing off the Borrower’s Defense to Repayment Program, so everything is taking way longer than anyone originally thought. For now, we’re all basically sitting in limbo waiting to see what happens. Hang tight and hope for a new President in 2020, because that’s really our best bet at getting things moving again.
Hi Tim….I went to the next step…wrote to my Senator, included links to the FTC action on DeVry and even this blog…they wrote right back needing my signature on paperwork on act on my behalf. Here’s hoping!
Paul in Maine
Hi Paul,
Good thinking and way to go! This is what Senators and Representatives SHOULD be doing! Way to use the system the way it was meant to be used, and good forward thinking. Please let me know if this works out for you, because if it does, I’ll add a section to my site talking about contacting Government Officials for assistance.
What state do you live in?
I live in Maine.
So far the Senator’s office has been very responsive, once I signed some paperwork authorizing them to act on my behalf. They then followed up asking what school, student loan number (FedLoan account) and a summary of what action I have taken so far, etc. They’ve asked any letters or communication I get to be shared with them, so they have everything I do. We shall see.
Paul, thanks for sharing these details with us! I think a Senator or Congressional Representative would be the ONLY person you should EVER consider allowing to authorize to act on your behalf, but way to go. Keep us updated on how this progresses.
Same here. I did receive a paid in full on my “in house Devry loan” in excess of over $3000. I then applied for the Debt Forgiveness in early 2017 and was approved for fore-balance, then a year came and went and I received a new notification stating that my fore-balance has been approved (again??) and I do not have payments for another year at this point (until 6/2019). (?) This is great, but it does not state that I was approved for debt forgiveness.
Hello. I have a complicated question. I attended DeVry a long time ago. I had post-9-11 GI bill which should have covered my tuition completely. I never knew there was a loan in there, there shouldn’t have been. As far as I knew, I had one loan from my other school and it was paid in full. I could not understand how or why I kept receiving letters stating my loans were past due and every time I called the servicer they said they had no loans. Finally I submitted for refinance and found out today that the loan was from DeVry. Would I be covered under this? I had no idea that I took out a loan. The recruiter specifically said that the GI bill would cover tuition.
Hi Veronica,
I think you would definitely be eligible for a BDAR Discharge because of the recruiter’s statement claiming that your entire tuition was covered under the GI Bill. That seems like a deceptive statement, false promise, and potentially fraud. I would absolutely pursue this.
Hello Tim,
I attended Devry from 2013-2014. I graduated and I haven’t found a job till today. I wanted to do Health Informatics and was told that Health Services Management is good one during the process of applying I was told it was the same thing.
My question is do I qualify to apply for Loan Forgiveness or Borrower’s Defense Against Repayment ?
Thank you.
Hi Matea,
Good question… I’m not entirely sure if you have a good claim here, but being told that Health Informatics and Health Services Management are “the same thing” may allow you to be eligible for a discharge. I think I’d try it and see what happens, but I wouldn’t assume it’s going to work. Check out my page on Borrower’s Defense to Repayment for details on the process.
Me again!
Well no progress and wondering if anyone has had their DeVry Federal Student loans forgiven yet? I hadn’t seen much for activity on this so I wrote to my US Senator (Susan Collins) explaining the FTC case, the Loan Forgiveness route advised in the refund letter and so on. I’d just really like to think Washington D.C. and the Trump Administration is processing these applications for loan forgiveness (regardless of politics or who you voted for) I’m still making my monthly payment…. sigh!
Hello Tim,
My stepdaughter attended Devry between 2012-2013, so of course did not finish. We have the same complaints as others do regarding the false claims and we are getting ready to file the form for borrower’s defense. I have two questions regarding filing.
1. I have Parent Plus loans and my stepdaughter has loans as well. Am I eligible to complete a borrower’s defense form and if so, do I complete one for my Parent Plus loans and for my stepdaughter’s loans separately?
2. Both my stepdaughter’s loans and my Parent Plus loans are due to start being paid back in the next couple of months. If I file the borrower’s defense form(s) and don’t start paying back the loans when I am due to because I’m waiting for the decision on the borrower’s defense application, won’t I incur a lot of interest and late payment fees, in addition to completing tanking my credit score?
Thank you for any assistance you can provide.
Hi Byron,
1. Yes, you can get your Parent Plus loans discharged, and there are specific instructions within the application itself that tell you exactly how you handle that process. Here’s the language from the official Government Student Aid website talking about that:
“Please read the instructions provided within the application before filling out the application form. Please note that the instructions also include information for parent PLUS borrowers.”
2. You’re going to need to be paying these loans while you’re waiting, or at least covering the interest payments while you’re waiting for the response, so you need to plan ahead for that piece. Yes, if you fail to make the interest payments, you’re going to wrap up a ton of additional debt, and yes, you will tank your credit score if you just ignore the loans entirely.
Hello Tim,
Thank you for responding my questions. This helps me immensely in planning how to move forward with this action. I will post back if I have good news although it looks like I will not know for at least a year.
Byron
I wanted to say thank you for posting this. I just submitted my application. I see you wrote that it’s better if you didn’t finish. I graduated because I felt like i had no choice but to continue on. Is this something that will hurt me? I’m 60K in, and I’m screwed if this process doesn’t work for me.
Hi Chris,
It’s better if you didn’t finish the program because then you can make the claim that you didn’t get anything out of the process, or for your money. Having the degree finished makes it a little harder to get an approval, since they could argue that you did at least get your college degree from the school. You might be fine though. There’s no way to tell until the DOE gets back to you.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/12/06/devry-traded-private-small-company
Have you heard anything of this? It States that Devry is going to be handed off to another company… They are trying to disappear? Also 1600+ Claims of borrowers defense are against Devry. (is there anyway to check on that number now?) Hopefully up to 20,000…
Hi Tim,
I think I qualify to apply for Loan Forgiveness because I attend DeVry in 2012. I never finished though because they did not offer the classes I needed on the campus I was attending. During the process of applying I was told the classes would be available. Another thing, I was going part time because that is the only way I was able to do it so that I would be covered with financial aid and it never coming out of my pocket. When I contacted DeVry about it, they said that there were other fees that were never explained to me. Some how I owe them $29,000 in student loans but I never even finished. Do you think I have a case for Loan Forgiveness?
Hi Rosa,
It’s actually a good thing that you didn’t finish, because if you had, you wouldn’t be eligible for the Closed School Loan Discharge Program.
Based on your story, and the fact that the school gave you incorrect information about the availability of courses at your campus, I think you’re eligible for BOTH Discharge programs, the Closed School Loan Discharge Program, AND the Borrower’s Defense Against Repayment Program
For the Closed School Discharge, it’s basic. If you were there at the right time, never completed your degree, and were still enrolled soon enough to the time the school closed, you’ll be approved. The only thing I’m not clear on is when you stopped being a student. You’ll need to review your files and check the dates to see if you were still enrolled close enough to the shutdown.
For the Borrower’s Defense Against Repayment Program, I think you should pursue a discharge by making the argument that you only agreed to borrow money to attend the school because they told you that courses would be available on the campus you wanted to attend, which you later found out was not true, and which meant that your loans were created because of false promises/false advertising (if you want to accuse them of lying…).
I would definitely pursue a discharge. I’d go after the Closed School Discharge first (if your dates are right), and the Borrower’s Defense Against Repayment Second (if you can’t pursue the Closed School Discharge because your dates aren’t eligible).
Good luck!
I already filed borrower defense, can i also ask for FTC settlement check?
Hi Tarig,
You can try, but I don’t think they’d approve unless your Borrower’s Defense claim is rejected. I would probably not do it just in case they haven’t decided on Borrower’s Defense yet, and somehow it invalidates your claim. Most of the FTC settlement checks are really low (hundreds of dollars).
I attended Devry University from 2003-2007, do i qualify for the loan forgiveness program?
Hi Brian,
Did you read the content of the post? It’s all explained within the copy.
Hi Tim… your friend Paul again! Just a status update…not a peep on the Loan Forgiveness front but still hopeful. I keep checking in to see if others have heard anything on their side?
Hi Paul,
I haven’t been hearing a whole lot… people tend to only come back and update me when things go wrong! I never hear from the people who get their forgiveness because they’ve moved on with their lives =)
Keep your fingers crossed! Betsy DeVos has slowed things down, but processing is still happening and forgiveness could come at any moment.
Will they call you? Email you? Or mail you saying you have been forgiven? Last time I got an email saying my claim was being processed and I never heard back, it has been over a year so I hope to finally put this all behind me and move on with my life.
Hi Ryan,
Yeah, you should get an official letter from DOE once everything is finalized. People have been waiting over a year to get anything back though… it’s a long, long line.
Ah I see, thanks Tim. Yeah I did receive a message from the DOE saying that I am being processed. Just playing the waiting thing…lol.
I never got even an email. There seems to be no way to check in on status?
There really isn’t a way to check Paul, you’re right.
Hi. Today I was paying my student loan to see that some of my loans show in forbearance which I didn’t apply for. This brought to mind the documentation that I filled out w/FTC. Do you think this is good news? That maybe my documents are being reviewed?
Hi Tammie,
It could mean that, but there’s really no way of knowing. I would contact whoever services your loans to ask what’s going on.
I saw the same thing yesterday. They put my forebearence until 2019. I sure hope it means that Tammie. This school completely destroyed my life 🙁
You had me all excited so I logged into my Fed Loan servicer (myfedloan.org) and it shows my next payment due the 23rd and all my loans are still displaying a “Repayment” status. Sigh….soon, I hope….
Keep the faith my friend, forgiveness should be coming. 🙂
I submitted mine back in June of 2017, just this month loans were put into foreberance. Looks like they are staying that way till feb 2019. I will continue to pay regardless.
The only thing I heard from the DOE is that my claim is being processed and that was about a year ago. So now I am just waiting to hear back from them. Checking my mail like a madman, lol.
It seems so insane that somebody could potentially be denied that went to Devry. With the FTC proving they lied, etc. you would have to have gone there during a time their ads weren’t showing. But as someone mentioned earlier, they have been saying this 90% b.s. for like umpteen years.
Think about it: 90% is pretty much everyone. Sounds too good to be true and it was! They actually counted bartenders in this statistic! Disgusting!
Thank the FTC caught and exposed them! 🙂
And if you really want to make an impact, make sure you help promote and encourage the good work that the FTC and especially the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are currently doing to stop President Trump and Betsy DeVos from RUINING student loan forgiveness programs completely! These two are hell-bent on ending both the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program AND the Borrower’s Defense Against Repayment Program. That’s why your applications are taking so long to get word back… DOE is not prioritizing them as they should be, costing ordinary Americans TRILLIONS of dollars in unnecessary student loan payments.
Any news so far? lol
Hi Tim,
I applied for the Borrower’s Defense forgiveness in March of 2017 and still have not heard anything. For the last 6-7 months I have been getting a bill from Devry for over $1,600 in school fees. I don’t want to pay it. Is it a good idea to call the school and tell them that I don’t have to pay since they’ve defrauded so many people?
Hi Kathy,
Calling DeVry and telling them that you’re not going to pay won’t really accomplish anything other than pissing them off. You need to keep paying and waiting for the Department of Education to process your application.
Unfortunately, you and hundreds of thousands of other Americans are in the same situation, and the DOE is dragging their feet because Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has been trying to protect the for-profit schools.
Hopefully, you’ll get an update soon, but I’ve had many readers say it’s taking over a year to hear back from DOE, so it could be a while.
There’s hope for tax crap:
in 2008, the Treasury Department announced that it would not tax any loan forgiveness issued to students that went to schools run by Corinthian Colleges, a for-profit company which defrauded students at 91 campuses across the United States. In issuing this proclamation, the Treasury Department effectively carved out an exception from the typical policy of taxing forgiven loans in instances of fraud.
Good find Ryan and thanks for sharing!
I’ve called the Borrower’s defense hotline and Fed Student Loan relief numbers you provided but no one answered. Are they still working?
They’re definitely still working! What number did you call? And what day and time? I’ll check to see what happened here.
(EDIT: Just noticed your comment came through at 1 in the morning. If you’re trying to call in the middle of the night, you might not get an answer!)
Hello again,
I was wondering about how this is going to go. From what i read they are trying to redo the borrowers defense…? so they are going to halt the processes for awhile (2019???)
Hi Brock,
Betsy DeVos has been trying to shut Borrower’s Defense down entirely, but to no avail. Every time she tries to stop PSLF or Borrower’s Defense, she gets sued, and the Courts so far have been ruling against her. I don’t think there’s any way for her or the Trump Administration (or the for-profit schools that they seem to represent) to stop Borrower’s Defense from rolling on. Hopefully.
Yeah it has been a year! I have been waiting patiently and this whole thing is absolutely ridiculous to the uttermost level. Last time I heard my claim was being processed. Now, almost a year later I still have no effing clue what happened. Worst is my forbearence is running out and I am not paying them a dime for their crime! Even paying them 30 a month for something that was a scam is atrocious! I only make 14 an hour too! Not enough to even live on my own because of this school! What do they expect us to do?
Hi Ryan,
It’s crazy how long it’s taking the Department of Education to process these requests, but this is happening because SO MANY PEOPLE have applied to the programs, and DOE didn’t staff up to handle the volume. If we had a different President you might see a lot more progress on this front, but Trump cares little about student loans (hasn’t even mentioned them since getting elected…) and Betsy DeVos is outright hostile to the forgiveness programs, so you’re fighting an uphill battle.
Thank you for the all the help you have been doing sir.
First of all thank you for getting into so much detail with this post this helped me so much!!! I went to DeVry and graduated in 2015 and got my refund from the FTC it was a lot more that what some people reported they got. I got the letter telling me about the borrowers defense to go along with the check but I’ve been iffy about doing it but now that I have read this I feel like I might have chance just like everyone else I understand that its a long process but my parents also helped me with some loans do you know if they can apply for this or dose it just apply for me because I got a refund but my dad didn’t, and is that number still good to call so I can get further assistance on filling out the application?
Hi Anthony,
Unfortunately, I don’t think your parents will be able to use Borrower’s Defense the same way that you can. I’m fairly certain that it only applies to the actual student who took out the loans to attend their school, BUT… you should try contacting either the Student Loan Relief Helpline or whoever Services your loans (they could lie, which is why I’m suggesting the Helpline first…) to ask what the rules are on having Co-Signers or Parent Plus Loans (whatever your Dad did) use Borrower’s Defense.
Thanks for the kind words, and please share the page with your friends and family, post it to Twitter, Facebook, etc., as I want to get it in front of as many people as possible! Nobody deserves to be stuck with loans from DeVry after how they treated their students!
Well just like someone posted, I was checking to see if my payment went through and it’s at $0.00 Awaiting Form Administrative Forbearance and it ends 09/02/2018. I submitted a Borrower’s Defense Application months ago. I did not receive correspondence and am wondering what is going on or what this means?? Any thoughts??? My husband’s loans are also under forbearance and he also applied as we both attended Devry at the same time and submitted our applications.
Hi Maddy,
It can take well over a year to hear back on Borrower’s Defense, so that may still just be getting processed. And your payments definitely should be $0.00 if you’re already on Forbearance, so that doesn’t sound fishy.
You might want to double check that everything is correctly configured though. My recommendation would be calling the experts at the Student Loan Relief Helpline to see what they think you should do. You can reach them at 1-888-906-3065.
Yeah I have been waiting for about a year and I still have no clue what the heck is going on. This was such a huge mess! I just want my loans forgiven so I can go to a better school!! Last time I heard was in March that my claim was being processed. Now, I have no idea what has happened. Just a nightmare. Such a crime. So wrong and I know there are many suffering families out there becuase of this school.
Thank you for this very detailed information that rivals the FTC blog page!
Like many others, I was in the affected time range and received a settlement check for $400~ish dollars. The letter inside provided a link to apply for loan forgiveness (borrower’s defense). I applied using the website and a few days later, followed up with a phone call (yes, I managed to reach a human!). They said much of what you said they investigate it and you only hear the results. I am hopeful to have my loan forgiven and I keep checking to see of others have had success in doing so. I am curious if any have had what they have paid refunded as well? I was a little shocked about the tax information you provided…after all we have been through, we get clobbered in taxes after being forgiven? Did I read that right?
Hi Paul,
I have heard second-hand reports that people DID receive full refunds for the amounts they’d already repaid to DeVry, but no one has personally told me that they themselves got the refund. I’m always asking people to come back and report to me what they find out after leaving comments on my site, but once they’re problems are solved… I usually never hear back!
I agree that the tax stuff is totally ridiculous, and a travesty. It’s going to devastate a lot of people who have absolutely no idea of what’s coming, with massive tax bills, huge IRS debt, and all sorts of long-term legal problems. UNLESS Congress acts (which they might…), as there are several proposals in the works that push for resolving the potential crisis by forgiving tax liabilities on forgiven education loans.
I am not hopeful that any of these initiatives will be passed any time soon though, especially as President Trump’s Department of Education Head Betsy DeVos has signaled so much outright hostility toward individual Americans, and constantly done anything she could to support the treacherous for profit schools run by her friends, and the student loan servicing agencies run by her own family. I’m keeping my fingers crossed, but be prepared for rough waters ahead if your loans are forgiven, because it seems like the big tax bill will be almost inevitable.
Well I don’t know what’s going on but my loans went into forbearance I was about to make a payment and my payment is now $0.00 Calling for answers!
Okay that was exciting…an error in my FAFSA had me at zero income so zero payment! Student Loan staff on phone were great, gently bursting my bubble. Re-filed and payments resume next month. But…still hopeful to hear about forgiveness! I promise to let you know if I obtain it!
Hi Paul,
Sorry to hear about that, because a $0 payment sounds like an AMAZING thing! Good luck with your submission and please do come back to let me know how it goes!
hi Tim-
I was wondering if you or anyone had any updates on this whole borrowers defense? Any thIng new to the conclusion…
Thanks
Hi Brock,
Yes, there’s been news. Betsy DeVos’s attempt to kill Borrower’s Defense off has failed. The program is still running and Department of Education is still taking applications. If you think you’ve got a shot at getting a discharge, you need to get your application submitted ASAP.
Thought I would share. Former DeVry graduate with honors. I thought DeVry would have been my “knight and shining armor” for success, full of confidence due to the highlighted guaranteed of 90% of graduates get jobs and well pay within 6 months – if it wasn’t for that I would have stayed at the factory. I hear about the settlement and forgiveness but I am not sure what this may include. I graduated with a debt of 60k in 2011. Today my balance is 90k for a BA degree with no way of keeping that under control or paying off. I am a family of 5 and have to obtain food from social service due to low income just to feed my family. It is now 2017 and still struggling (I guess I am not in the 90%) even though I have dedicated and devoted so much time to trying to succeed.
As I have learned about a potential opportunity to perhaps maybe forgive some of my debt, I made that attempt. I applied, called several times, backtracked with the school and living locations to find out why. It turns about I am ineligible because my 1st enrollment date was not between Jan 1, 2008 and 2015. I called DeVry to retrieve the dates, they claimed false information that did not added up. They said my 1st enrollment date was May 2007. I didn’t even learn of DeVry until September 2008, so that was not possible. So I dug through my filing cabinet and was able to locate an unopened official copy of my transcript to see that I was indeed outside their scope of eligibility, but by just over a month. It was in November 2007. Because of this, FTC firmly pushed me away stating there isn’t anything they can or will do.
I thought I seen something about the average eligible student receives up to about 1% (which would be something like $300-$500). Hypothetically, how does that compare to $90k?
Even though I faced the same promises, I fail to find any support or relief because I was a month off. My debt continues increase about $300 a month with no chance of paying it off in sight. IBR is helpful for the short term, but for a long term solution. Not a chance!
I had future plans to extend my education and go back to school. I suppose I should wait until I win the lottery. Oh, wait – I don’t play the lottery.
Maybe someone who reads this has in-site
Michael,
Don’t give up! Even if you don’t qualify for any forgiveness benefit under the DeVry program itself, you should pursue a Borrower’s Defense Against Repayment Claim vs. the school. Visit my page about Borrower’s Defense to Repayment Discharges.
Also, consider calling the Borrower’s Defense to Repayment Hotline at (888) 732-4742. These guys are EXPERTS at getting Borrower’s Defense claims approved, and getting your loans ENTIRELY DISCHARGED. You will have to pay them for their assistance, but claims against DeVry are some of the easiest to get through the filter (because they’ve got such a bad reputation, and screwed over so many people).
Your story is compelling and I am certain that they’d be able to help you.
I am still waiting for my claim to get approved. It has been months. What has happened? My loans are in forbearence and I don’t want to pay Devry a dime b/c of their theft!
Hi Ryan,
Many people are in the same situation – there’s no telling how long it’ll take until your loan gets forgiven, but be patient and keep the faith. Forgiveness should be coming…
Its Funny Cause Devry University (Pomona, California)Location is For Sale for the past year and a half and there recruiting students. So there doing fraud because these students don’t know anything about the lawsuit.
Hi Edwin,
I’m not sure that constitutes fraud, but DeVry has been accused of doing all sorts of other things that WOULD amount to fraud (like false advertising).
Are we screwed now…from the latest news now ?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/ex-devry-dean-to-probe-for-profit-colleges-critics-pounce/2017/08/31/6110b522-8e76-11e7-9c53-6a169beb0953_story.html
Hi Brock,
Politics as usual, unfortunately. But, I’m still optimistic that the other Government Agencies will continue to get things done for us.
In fact, everyone OUTSIDE of the Department of Education should continue to fight for the rights of students and borrowers, like the CFPB, and the FTC.
It’s just the Department of Education that will remain an enemy as long as Betsy DeVos stays in charge of it. There is almost no chance that she will ever rule against her own friends (and family, who own a huge student loan servicing company).
Hello Tim,
Do you think it is worth seeking legal counsel as well to help speed the process up with DeVry or possibly get more money out due to the hardship it has caused?
Hi Eric,
It may be, and I would bet there are plenty of attorneys chomping at the bit to go after DeVry, but it’s going to be quite expensive because that’s the cost of a good attorney. One other thing you may want to consider is using the Student Loan Relief Helpline’s Borrower’s Defense Against Repayment Hotline. These guys aren’t attorneys, but they specifically handle Borrower’s Defense cases, and they may be able to help too. You can reach them at (888) 732-4742. You will have to pay for their help, but way less than you’d pay an attorney.
Also I was wondering, should my dad submit a separate borrowers defense for the devry loans under his social for us taking out parent plus loans for devry ?
Hi Jenny,
Yes, everyone has to submit a separate letter. Good luck!
Hello! I fit into the dates specified regarding loan forgiveness. The only thing I had received was a small check for about $400 and I still have over 10K in loans to pay off. Who can I contact to see if my loans will get forgiven?
Hi Mary,
There’s no one to contact, yet, at least. What you should do is file a Borrower’s Defense Against Repayment letter.
Has anyone had attended Devry and had success with the borrower defense? I filed my borrower defense April 2016!! I keep asking for updates and the say it is still in review.
Hi Bill,
I’ve received several updates from people saying their borrower’s defense against DeVry was approved, but they’re just taking forever to get through all the applications. The Department of Education has been flooded with these ever since they were first announced.
I am curious when you say approved, does that mean the borrowers are getting their entire loans canceled or does that mean approved to go into the review process. Mine has been in the review process since April 2016. Also the number you provide for the CareConnect do you know what they typically charge?
Hi Bill,
When I say approved in reference to the Borrower’s Defense Against Repayment Program, I mean people are getting their ENTIRE LOAN BALANCES forgiven, not just receiving tiny fractional refunds (through the official DeVry program). The DeVry forgiveness benefit fizzled (on it’s own), only providing small amounts of money to individual borrowers, but it made it far more likely that those same DeVry borrowers could use Borrower’s Defense to get a discharge for everything they owe, and people are receiving those complete discharges now.
The Student Loan Relief Helpline typically charges a few hundred dollars. I’d say the average costs I hear from people who use the service range between $350 – $800. It depends on how much help is needed, how much paperwork needs to be filed, etc. Sometimes it’s easy for them to take care of this stuff, and other times they have to do a bunch of research and work to put everything in order.
The nice thing about the Helpline is that they will literally do EVERYTHING on your behalf, collecting all the details, putting together all the applications, and ensuring things are done correctly.
If you’ve already submitted a Borrower’s Defense letter though, I would hang tight and wait for those results. There’s nothing that anyone can do to expedite the process for you now… you’re already in queue, and just need to wait it out. Good luck!
Hello,
Where do I get updates on an application that was submitted online? I’ve received my tiny check of $278, so I know that I qualify. I’d just like to know how to follow the approval process.
Thanks
Hi Chris,
There really isn’t anywhere online that you can check the progress of a Borrower’s Defense Application. It’s kind of an all or nothing deal. You submit the application, then wait for the Department of Education to get back to you on the status, and let you know whether or not you’ve been approved for the Discharge.
To apply for the borrower defense you are required to have proof of some wrong doing. It was so long ago I don’t believe I have anything laying around. What type of proof are you using to support your claims? I have federal and Wells Fargo loans if that matters.
Thank you
Hi Lauren,
The proof can be anecdotal type stuff. You have to be able to state, clearly, that the school violated some State or Federal law. Most people go with making false promises, or some sort of deceptive advertising. Promises like making a certain amount of money, getting a management position, landing a specific job title or job description, etc., are the easiest ones to come up with.
What you may want to consider is hiring outside help from a debt resolution company, who does this all day, every day. My favorite company in the space is the Student Loan Relief Helpline. You’ll have to pay for their assistance, but having them help with your application dramatically increases the odds that you’ll receive an approval, since they know what to say, and how to say it.
If you have Federal loans, call the Federal Student Loan Relief Helpline at: 1-888-906-3065
If you have Private loans, call the Private Student Loan Relief Helpline at: 1-866-530-9946
Got my refund, got a letter saying they are looking into my claim because I filled the BTDRP a couple months ago….This school needs to be closed, burned, pissed on,….etc.
Hah, thanks for the comment Ryan, and good for you on the refund. Now, hopefully you’ll get approved for the full discharge!
@Ryan
Could you share what exactly the letter says ?
Filled my borrowers defense application couple months ago too … heard nothing
The letter said that my claim is being processed and that’s about it. I already got my refund check in the mail and I’m just waiting for this process to be over. This school has ruined so much and I never even had a legitimate IT job with it.
Hey Ryan, I would try calling the Borrower’s Defense to Repayment Helpline. This is a new number that the Student Loan Forgiveness Helpline set up, specifically for people who want to challenge the validity of their loans. You can reach them at (888)-732-4742.
I will be leaving bad review for Devry. If I could give them negative stars I would. Sadly submitting a review is all I know how to do. I don’t even get a refund because I was just outside their dates (where ever that range came from – makes no sense to me). My 1st enrollment date was end of November of 2007.
Is the borrowers defense something I can submit even if I’m still attending?
Hi Arlene,
A couple people have asked this and here’s how I’ll answer: Yes, you could, but do you think you’d get an approval if you did?
Borrowers Defense letters claim that the school violated some state or federal law. Typically, for making false claims, or pulling some kind of fraud, or offering false promises that the school did not live up to.
If you fill out a letter claiming this, but you continue to attend the school and keep taking out more loans, then do you think the person reviewing your letter will really feel like you were defrauded? Or will they think you’re just trying to get your loans written off?
I think you will have a better chance getting approved for a discharge if you’re not actively attending the school.
I am trying to fill out the borrower’s defense to repayment form and have a question. It ask to submit documentation such as brochures, ads etc if we do not have any of those will we immediately be denied? Can and should we refrence the FTC case in our explanation? Want to fill this out the best I can and give myself the best chance to get an approval.
Hi Daniel,
This is exactly why I send so many readers to the Student Loan Relief Helpline to get assistance with their applications.
Yes, you should include documentation like brochures, ads, etc. in your letter. No, you won’t be immediately denied for not including them, but leaving them out decreases the odds that you’ll get approved.
Yes, you should reference the FTC case in your explanation, since that sets a legal precedent that there’s been a problem with SO MANY other people, not just you!
But most importantly, you’ve got to clearly state that the school violated some State or Federal law, and that they did it to trick you into signing up for their programs. You’ve got to make it VERY CLEAR that you would never have agreed to take out these loans had they not made those false promises, or set up false expectations.
This is why it helps to hire an outside expert, who does these all day, and let them guide you through the process of filling out the application. This is especially true for people with huge outstanding loan balances, since you’re only going to get once chance at getting an approval to have all that debt wiped out.
If I were you, I’d contact the Student Loan Relief Helpline and pay them for their help in filling out the Borrowers Defense to Repayment Application. They are absolutely experts at handling this process, and their assistance could make the difference in getting your loans discharged.
If you have Federal loans, call the Federal Student Loan Relief Helpline at: 1-888-906-3065
If you have Private loans, call the Private Student Loan Relief Helpline at: 1-866-530-9946
I have 62k in Debt on Devry… And Have some questions. The information with the refund check came in($638.45) and stated: “This Payment does not prevent you from seeking other relief that may be available under Federal or State law. For Example DOE’s Borrowers Defense to Repayment provides loan forgiveness in certain circumstances…” So with that being said would you say that chances are good on filling out a borrowers defense claim only to the years within the settlement: January 1, 2008 and October 1, 2015 ? The FTC and DOE worked together within the case… So why would the DOE not do anything to help with students that were Deceptived? In the information with the refund check states”Devry ran advertisements that included deceptive claims on the likelihood of finding jobs in there field and earnings”
Another question sorry… is there anything that will happen soon to prevent the borrowers defense? Does Betsy DeVos’s want to hold/do away with the borrowers defense?
Last Question… Do you think Government didnt shut down devry because they were too big to fail?
Thanks
Hi Brock,
I would DEFINITELY fill out a Borrower’s Defense Against Repayment Application right now.
Betsy DeVos froze the program in June to try and prevent everyone from getting the discharges, but if you get yours in now, you may still be covered under some sort of grandfathering clause even if they end up shutting it down completely.
Getting your Borrowers Defense to Repayment Form submitted is probably the most important thing you could do for your outstanding student loans PERIOD. You need to do it quickly though, because the longer you wait, the more likely you are to not get an approval.
I submitted a copy of my FTC letter when I applied for the Borrowers Defense program. I did it yesterday. Do you think that was sufficient?
Hi Steve,
Depends… but potentially. It’s better than NOT including the letter.
Thanks. Several years after leaving devry I threw away all of the processing forms and Ads. Had I known this was going to happen I would have saved it. I just hope that FTC form and the information I entered is enough for me to “win”
Don’t forgot about the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, which lets you load up old version of any website! You may be able to find some good marketing materials in there.
Hi Tim,
My husband graduated from DeVry and was fortunate enough to find a job 2 months after graduation. I believe his military background helped with his job placement. Do you think we still have a chance at getting his loan forgiven through the Borrower Defense to Repayment program. Although he was successful, we are still left with a $60,000 student loan!
Hi Brittani,
It doesn’t matter if he found a job or not; if the school lied to you, made false promises, or violated some State or Federal law, then you can still apply and get approved for the discharge.
Hi Tim!
Thoughts on something here. I finished my last year and a half of my bachelors at devry in 2010 and 2011. $20,000 in private student loans. I just wrote a nice big $10k check to pay them off the first week of June. Today, I get a $320 check from the FTC for this whole Devry settlement. My question, am I able to go after them and get reimbursement for my $20,000 in student loans I paid off? My degree was a joke. Completely humiliating. I went ahead and filled out the Borrowers Defense application. Just not sure if my paying my student loans off early will have an impact on this or not. Or if I’m even eligible for anything. Thanks!
Hi Lynn,
I would love to give you a straight answer, but I think your best bet will be to contact the Student Loan Ombudsman Group and ask them about this. This is a group of Government-backed lawyers (not a private company, not a for-profit company) who can provide legal advice regarding student loans.
I’d like you to ask them what they think, then please come back and let me know what they say. You’ve got a few moving pieces that make it harder for me to determine what the proper answer would be, so I’m leaving it to the true experts. (Variables include that your loans are private, not federal, that you already settled, that you already received a check. Those all change the math).
I just got my refund from ftc. For my govt loans through nelnet, I owe 61k.
My ftc refund was 168 dollars. The letter from ftc with the check said to do the borrowers defence. Since I make 8.80 an hour at my job, I obviously can’t afford a lawyer so I’ll be filling it out on the website the ftc pointed to.
168 dollars refund for 61k loans. I never got my degree because devry never told me at the start the loans would only cover 3/4 of the tuition.
All I wanted was to have a good life. I’m 44 and attended 2010 to 2012 online. I tried got straight A’s, deans list, and got kicked and ruined for it. I pray the borrowers defence will zero out the loans so I can do a real school and become a psychologist which is my dream job. Maybe I have a 2nd chance. I hope so. I don’t want to pay for what was literally quite a few class tours. It’s basically what ultimately ended up happening. 🙁
Hi Sarah,
It sounds like you’ve got a good shot at getting a Borrowers Defense Against Repayment discharge though, so I wouldn’t be too upset about this whole thing. It’s just going to take a little bit more time to get it all dealt with.
You don’t need an attorney for the Borrowers Defense Against Repayment process either. If you don’t feel like you’re capable of explaining what was done wrong, then pay a very small fee to get help from the Student Loan Relief Helpline; they will make sure your letter is fully-compliant with what the Department of Education wants to see, and needs to hear, in order to authorize the discharge.
It may cost a few hundred dollars for their assistance with the consultation, but isn’t that worth getting rid of the $61,000 debt???
Call the Federal Student Loan Relief Helpline at: 1-888-906-3065
Tim,
I graduated in 2011 with $45,000 in student loan debt. To date, I still owe $22,000. I submitted my application to borrowers defense yesterday. Typically, how long does it take to hear back from them? Will they determine if DeVry has to reimburse me for the $23,000 I’ve already paid, or do I need to go through another avenue for that?
Thanks,
Matt
Hey Matt,
It’s taking ages to get the response right now. I’ve had people say they haven’t heard back on their applications that were submitted over a year ago, but several months is probably the average length of time it’s taking for people to hear back. One problem I have is that people only come to leave comments on the site when they have problems. Very few come back to tell me when their applications are approved.
I would say you should expect it to take around 6 months to a year to find out if you’ll get approved. It’s a crappy timeline, but it’s realistic at this point, as the Federal Government has been FLOODED with applications.
Thank you! I’ve been following this thread regularly in hopes to hear how others have fared in their attempts. If/when I hear, I’ll comment and let others know my results.
Thanks for continuing to respond to all of the comments!
So as of now i haven’t heard anything from DeVry does that mean i’m not eligible? I was a student online in 2011 but as i said i heard nothing from them about settlement.
Hi Heather,
Not necessarily – I would contact DeVry, your loan servicer, and then consider calling the Student Loan Relief Helpline as well (their numbers are plastered all over my site with ads, so call the Private helpline if you have private loans, or the Federal hotline is you have Federal loans). You may still be eligible, even if you haven’t heard anything from DeVry. This process has been bungled up pretty badly, so you have to do some of the work yourself (or pay someone like the Relief Helplines to do it for you) to figure it out.
Just wanna say thanks Tim for all that you do on here.
You got it Jessica. Thanks for the positive feedback!
Hello!
I’m glad to have come across your site! I have heard that Devry University has gotten I trouble and refunds/debt relief was going to be offered to some, so I have been patiently waiting for more info.
I went to Devry November 2013 to June 2016. And was 50k in the hole with them. I had planned on getting my bachelor’s degree with them but after looking at my aide and loans I would use ALL of it in the process so I dropped down to an associates degree because i told myself i refuse to walk away from this 50k debt with no degree. So I stayed and got it.
And now I’m back in college with a community college and get seeing that 50k makes me so mad that if I would have started at a community college in the beginning it would have been only 12,000. Seeing the difference in this just hurts that a college would do that to a student.
I really want to see this 50k, heck even half of it would be fine, gone.
Thanks for commenting Mercedes, and you hit on the dirty little trick of the higher education and student loan industry: there’s NO REASON to attend a 4 year institution when you can get the same degree, same quality of education, by doing 2 years at a Community College (for nearly no money), then transferring into the school of your choice for Upper Division courses, and the eventual big name on your degree.
Unfortunately, too many people continue to fall for the ploy of the “4 year experience”, and bury themselves in debt over that dream. The reality is that college is a financial investment, not a fun time, and people need to start taking the business side of the equation far more seriously.
Thanks for commenting, and hopefully you qualify for some of the refunds that’ll be distributed this Summer.
I submitted a Borrower’s to Defense of Repayment and don’t know what to do next. I have no job, no money, and threatening bills that I cannot possibly afford. This school has done nothing to help mean and it literally just got me in debt with a sub par education. HELP!!!
Hi Ryan,
You’ll just have to sit tight. You need to wait to hear back from DOE on whether or not your request gets approved. Make sure you keep making your payments along the way, as you cannot stop paying until you get written approval from the Federal Government, otherwise your interest will continue to capitalize and the amount you owe will continue to increase.
Okay thank you Tim. I went to an agency and they said I was pre-approved for a Borrower’s to Defense to Repayment but then they wanted money so I told them to go F**** themselves. I just did it myself online and included the ads they used to sucker me into their program. Now I am forced to live with parents, work a temp job, and was set-up to fail by this school. You can learn all from DeVry on youtube watching free videos. DeVry is a complete SCAM!! I can’t believe they are still open. I am waiting for my loans to be forgiven so I can have a second chance. NOT FAIR TO BE IN DEBT FOR A USELESS DEGREE!!
I know, I don’t even have a job!! I had to move back to my parents because of this school!
Hey Ryan,
Sorry to hear how about the mess Devry has put you in. I wanted to ask where you found the Add’s from 2008-2015 with the false advertising. I would like to upload these for the Borrower Defense application. I am specifically looking for the add that states the average earnings of DeVry grads copared to those graduating from other colleges. Thanks!
Tim, what validity is there for the student dept help services. So far my research is showing that most, if not all, of these services simply fillout and file paperwork which is readily accessible to borrowers on the federal student loan website.
Even the FTC has a warning about using services requiring an up front fee:
https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/did-you-attend-devry-dont-pay-loan-forgiveness
I only ask as I had called the number you have listed in other posts for help asked me to pay upfront for them to file the docs for me.
Hi Brent,
Yes – they will charge you to handle the paperwork for you.
The reason I still advocate using this service is that they make sure everything is done RIGHT, and they increase the odds that your petitions are successful. If you’re a detail-oriented person who is smart, knows how to follow explicit instructions, and can handle it all on your own, then there’s no real benefit to paying someone else to do the work for you.
The main reason I suggest that people look into these services at all is that many of my visitors are confused about what they qualify for, what they should be doing, and how to go about it, etc. Some people don’t even know if they have public or private loans. As you can imagine, that makes it pretty difficult for them to qualify and receive any of the benefits I talk about on this site.
In your case, it sounds like you don’t really need any assistance, and you can take care of everyone on your own.
So there has been an update on the FTC page…
https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/devry-refund-update
It’s interesting to me.
As I stated earlier in this process the FTC ruling was only going to benifiet persons who got their loans through Devry. However, I’ve read over this statement multiple times and to me this seems like folks who took loans out (it doesn’t specify DeVry as being the loan provider) via any method will be getting some payment by the end of Summer?
I would like others input including yours Tim.
Don’t want to get my hopes up like last time but it kinda seems like those of us who took out loans via banks or federal might be getting some relief?
Thanks,
Anthony
I should mention that as many pointed out on the FTC comment section. Take into account the amount being sent out $49.4 million and that most people agree the amount of students this includes (50,000 or so) even if we do get money back it’s going to be a very small amount ($1,000)
I know it’s at least something, but I agree that our best hope for really getting out of the mess DeVry put us in we need to pursue a Borrowers Defense Application as a means to get out of debt.
Regards,
Anthony
From my reading, I do think that people who borrowed Privately will also be eligible for at least a partial refund, and I agree with your assertion that Borrowers Defense Against Repayment is the best possible approach to getting rid of the debt.
Hey Eric,
Which number did you use to call DeVry?
Did they contact you regarding the FTC settlement prior to you calling them?
I called the same DeVry location that I went to school, you need to call same school that you went and ask for the person that is charge with this lawsuit refund. Usually they will have that person to call you back. I hope all of us can get some relief in this lawsuit refund.
I have called DeVry and they said they don’t have any information on the debt Settlement they refer me to call FTC, 1-844-578-2645, and when I called that number there is an automated announcement which say’s FTC haven’t even started sending out any notification to current or former DeVry students, some people in this forum claim that they have received a check from DeVry, I don’t know who to believe anymore. All I know that I am one of the effected student that had a direct loan from DeVry through ECSI, but haven’t received anything regarding DeVry-FTC debt settlement yet as of April of 2017.
Hi Eric,
It’s definitely a slow process, but I have been told that some people were contacted already by DeVry, and others (like yourself) haven’t had any notification at all yet. Is DeVry your loan servicer? If so, they should be able to provide you with at least a timeline for when you can expect to hear more.
You could also try contacting the Department of Education to see what they think is going on.
I received a call from DeVry\FTC settlement location, that I am not qualify for this settlement because my direct DeVry loan through ECSI, I paid it off in 2015, they said only UNPAID portion will be refunded, same argument goes with the classes I took between 2008-2011 until I graduated in 2011, they would only refund UNPAID portion of tuition and books and other fees. So I’m not qualify for that either. DeVry is fraud School that anyway it can to rip off the students.
Hey Eric.
Did you call DeVry before they contacted you from the DeVry/FTC settlement location?
Which number did you call? I’m curious as I have over $60,000 in debt (federal loans) and attended DeVry. I feel cheated because I couldn’t land a job in my field for a while, they charged an arm and a leg for everything and to be quite honest – didn’t feel like I got proper education since I knew most of the stuff that they were teaching me ( web development program ).
Jake,
Make sure to take a look at my page about the Borrowers Defense Against Repayment Program. Whether or not you technically qualify for the new version of DeVry Student Loan Forgiveness, you can still challenge the validity of your loans if you think they did some kind of fraud, or violated some state or Federal law. False advertising, as an example, would count.
I paid over 4k to debt collectors for devry. In Oct 2016… Is there anyway I can get that money back?
Hi Stan,
It is possible that you may be entitled to a refund, but the details on this program still haven’t been hammered out. Your best bet is to contact whoever services your loans to find out what’s going on with this process, or hiring a local attorney to start sending out threatening letters to try and compel some activity on their end. One final option would be contacting the Private Student Loan Relief Helpline to see what they think your options are. You can reach them at 1-866-530-9946.
So, My loan stopped reporting from January to March 21 through the credit bureaus. I assumed I was one of the ones with debt forgiveness. After calling Devry, they said I didn’t have a loan with them. I was basically being charged for classes I dropped due to my child getting sick. I had told the advisor I didn’t want to start on my start day(I enrolled in Wednesday she had me started the following Monday.) Well Devry says classes don’t fall in the forgiveness part. Since its in collections I’m stuck with it and there nothing they can/will do about it to help either. Wish I hadn’t got my hopes up.
Bad plan to assume you had it made and stop paying… now you’re in trouble. I don’t know that you’ll have much recourse here since you didn’t follow the rules, but it may still be possible to challenge the validity of your loans. Call the Private Student Loan Relief Helpline and ask them if they can get you out of it. You will need to pay them to process the paperwork, but it’s not too expensive, so if you’ve got a lot of debt, it’ll be worth it in the long run. You can reach them at 1-866-530-9946.
I have bin in debt and am barely starting to build up my credit again. I went to DeVry in 2006 and left in 2008 I think. I did not graduate, I jumped ship. They lied about the program and many things about it. They just told me what I wanted to hear and also I believe they paid off my high school to tell the teachers to tell the students that it was an acceptation school. Because when I asked the teachers, they were all positive. Anyway, I have a debt of about 60’000. I asked what my loan amount was and they said 15,000. The rest is pure late fees and interest. I’m getting letters from about 2 to 3 different places and the dept keeps getting sold to different companies, so I don’t even know ware the money was borrowed from. I was taken advantage as a kid with no knowledge of all these things. Also in the lone itself, they hid something in it that said if I failed and didn’t graduate, the interest would go from 5% to 18% or something like that. That place ruined my life. Also sense I didn’t pay because I couldent afford to, they want me to pay in full. No way I could do that. My mother died and I’m afraid that they will take the home that was left to me. I just want to know how to get rid of this debt. I don’t want to pay them anything. DeVry and these loan companies knew what they were doing. It’s borderline slavery. I haven’t gotten anything in the mail from DeVry. Also my student loans were private Sallie Mae loans. I just want to know ware to start. So I can get my life back together. At the moment I finally got a good job but need a car and guess what? Bad credit, so getting a car is a nightmare. Even with the good paying job. Any information would be vary much appreciated. Thanks.
Call the Private Student Loan Relief Helpline and tell them your story. See what they can do to help, as you’ll have options like pursuing a Borrowers Defense Against Repayment debt discharge. If they lied to you, then you’ll absolutely be able to pursue having your loans completely wiped out. You can reach the Student Loan Relief Helpline here: 1-866-530-9946.
Hello Tim, and Anthony.
Gentlemen, let me thank you for all of your diligence andbleg work on the DeVry debacle. I am one of those former students affected by the FTC settlement with DeVry. As of 3 days ago, I had received a refund check from DeVry for my monthly payment (which I had to figbt tooth and nail to get reduced every 6 months). As I figured this was a mistake and checked my statement on their loan servicer (ECSI) web site, it showed that my balance was zero and no more payments due. This was more than $20,000 that just evaporated. I had gotten a seemingly random email from DeVry that explained the settlement, but it was a generic canned letter sent out to everyone and did not specifically address my situation. After calling ECSI/Heartland, the simply told me that the show the account as “wrote off”.
Using the information you have posted here, I am now starting the process to apply for the Borrowers Defence against Repayment program and hopefully get out from under close to $70,000 in federal student aid. Wish me luck.
Also, do you happen to know if money payed towards the DeVry private loan will be refunded? Or is it only for the current outstanding balance? If previous payments aren’t refunded, I feel bad for those former students who have been able to mostly payoff that debt. As it is I have already paid out close to 8 grand before the debt was wrote off.
Good luck Brent, and don’t quit! Also – remember that Borrowers Defense Against Repayment is a legal process, and that hiring an attorney (especially in cases with high debt loads like yours) is recommended. I do not make referrals for attorneys as it’d be impossible to know good ones in all markets, but Yelp will be your friend in finding someone who can help.
No one knows yet (for sure) whether or not all the money paid to DeVry will be refunded, but because there was specific language regarding refunds in the settlement letter, I am expecting that at least some percentage of the amount already paid will come back to the borrower. I agree that it would screw people over who were diligent and good about paying down their debt early, which is another reason I think the FTC will help set things right and ensure everyone gets a fair shake here.
Good luck, and please do come back to let us know how it goes, especially if you get approval!
Ho Tim, I am having a hard time locating an attorney to assist me with the Borrowers defence letter. Do you know of a serch engine that can point me in the right direction. Legalmatch.com and others keep sending me to bankruptcy lawyers and other related searches just send me to advertisements and such. Please help! I want to try and get this done before the new Sec. Of Education hoses us all!
Hi Brent,
I’d check Yelp. Or start calling up lawyers from the phone book. It’s not easy to find an attorney and will require some significant ground-pounding. When I needed a Copyright attorney, I had to send out about 100 emails before I finally found someone who could help.
Hello Brent, you can actually go on the Dept of Education and complete the Borrowers Defense package. It can be mailed or emailed. But i had issues emailing it so i mailed it via certified mail.
Furthermore, keep in mind the Government has a 3rd party handling this program and has few answers other than wait and see! As far as finding an attorney, good luck. These cases are dragged out for years and very expensive. Take the money from the FTC and put it on your balance but ask for a settlement first before telling them you received a lump sum. Then once the money post to your account. Go to your bank or credit union and get a loan to pay off. Their interest rate is MUCH better than Navient! They have Class Action suits against them as well. So please reasearch and contact the attorneys that are handling the lawsuit and have them send you a claim form. It is just a matter of time before Navient will be paying out large settlements like DeVry.
What/who is ECSI/Heartland?
I got the same generic email but nothing else. Of course, I have moved 3 times since graduating in 2013.
I don’t know.
ECSI is the contracted loan servicer that DeVry uses to manage their lending. For all intents and purposes, its the billing dept for DeVry funded loans.
Hi Brent,
Was your refund from the private loans as described in the settlement?
Hi Yia, so far I haven’t been given a refund of any amount paid towards the tuition loan owned by DeVry. I did verify the outstanding balance has been cleared and I owe nothing now.
I just recieved an email from the FTC stating that I should be receiving a refund of some perctage of what I have paid in to the loan over the last 7.5 years.
When the debt was cleared they did send back a monthly payment I had made for December, in the mean time I had also sent a payment for January before that happened, when I called to see when that payment is to be refunded, DeVry student finances had told me the servicer, ECSI, is responsible for that, when I called ECSI, they told me DeVry is the responsible party to refund me. Being that I have been fighting for this for over 4 months now, I finally filed a complaint with the Better Buisnes Bureau. Next step will be to lodge a complaint with the Dept. Of Education and my state Attorney General.
Hi Tim,
I would like to start off by saying I am absolutely crushed by the results of this FTC ruling. I felt such a sense of relief when I first heard about it and was so hopeful I would receive some sort assistance with my loan debt.
However, I am afraid this ruling is going to leave a lot of students without any sort of relief. Including myself.
Let me start by reiterating the first line of the FTC ruling.
“The settlement requires DeVry University to forgive and cancel the entire unpaid balance of all private student loans issued by DeVry University between September 1, 2008 and September 30, 2015.”
The key word here is “private student loans issued by DeVry”
I followed the blog on FTC’s site very closely
https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/cases-proceedings/refunds/devry-refunds-debt-forgiveness
I started to notice some folks report back their debt forgiveness / refunds from DeVry.
There was pattern. People were only getting them if they had loans directly from DeVry.
A lot people who have large federal loans began to ask the question, “what about us federal loan takers”.
There is an FTC representative in the blog who kept repeating some of the same things to people questions. Bridget Small – FTC.
She mentioned numerous times this settlement only covers loans that it directly originated and does not cover federal loans. Here is one quote
“The FTC’s settlement with DeVry includes $50.6 million to provide loan and debt forgiveness for students who currently owe money to DeVry. DeVry is able to forgive only the loans that it directly originated. It does not have the ability to cancel loans that it did not originate.”
I called DeVry and asked about my federal loans and a private Wells Fargo loan I have and she said this settlement does not cover those loans as they were, “not institutional loans”. They were loans that were not given out by DeVry thus can not be forgiven.
Now for some of the positives and this is where I would like your input as well as any readers.
I made a call to Ombudsman Group to get their opinion on what I should do.
They think people in my situation have a good chance at filing a borrow defense.
The FTC has already done the leg work on proving Devry’s false advertising that mislead students. Using their information they said I should try and file one.
I called the help line found on https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/ and spoke to a representative and asked them if I should file a borrow defense. He said absolutely.
What are your thoughts?
Should I get a lawyers?
I feel like if the FTC (a government entity) feels so strongly about the unethical business practices of Devry that we have grounds to file a borrow defense. It just does not seem right that the government has acknowledged Devry is no good and lied, but since the loans were taken out in another way we cannot get any sort of relief.
Hi Anthony,
Thank you so much for sharing these details with me and my readers! I think you have a fantastic chance at getting approval on a Borrowers Defense Against Repayment, and I would absolutely hire an attorney to help you write and file the proper paperwork.
The Government does work in mysterious (and often stupid) ways, and sometimes legal restrictions prevent them from doing what’s “right”, since they have to do what’s “legal”.
If I were you, I’d get started on the Borrowers Defense Against Repayment right away, especially since you received such positive responses from the Ombudsman Group, and the Student Aid Helpline.
Really good thinking and thank you for doing this research as I think it’s extremely important.
Hi Tim,
I have the federal and private student loans. My private loans are through Wells Fargo and Navient/Sallie Mae. I’ve attended DeVry between those years so I should be able to still apply for the Borrowers Defense Against Repayment correct? on the student aide website, it states that the Borrowers Defense Repayment is for federal loans so where I can I apply it towards private loans? Any websites or contact numbers available?
Hi SJ,
Yes, you should use the Borrowers Defense Against Repayment Provision to challenge the validity of your loans. And yes, it does apply to Private loans as well. The reason it says for Federal loans on the “Student Aid” website is because that site is operated by the Federal Government, and they only talk about their own loan types.
Call the Private Student Loan Relief Helpline and you can get some details about how this process works. If you want them to handle it for you, you’ll have to pay, but the call and conversation with them is free. You can reach them at 1-866-530-9946.
Hi Tim,
Thank you for all of the great information. My husband attended and graduated at decry during this time. Although he was fortunate to get a job within about two much of graduation, he never got paid what Devry promised. He will forever be in debt and it seems almost impossible to pay off his loan. We started off with a privat loan through Sallie Mae and then consolidated and refinanced through the government student loan site Nelnet. Any idea if this will affect the Borrowers Against Revision form? Also, You keep mentioning that we should get a lawyer to help with the Borrowers Against Revision letter? I went to the website and saw nothing about a letter. Do we have to submit a letter along with the application or do you think it might be helpful to submit one with the application? Thank you!
Has anyone received notification from Devry yet?
That’s what I’d like to know. It’s Feb 1st and I have heard nothing, still, on my $60k + in debt.
It takes forever to get a resolution with these programs, and the Schools drag their feet as much as possible before actually doing anything about the debt.
The only way to push for a faster end to the process is to pay an attorney or a debt settlement agency to go after the school on your behalf. Pestering them with phone calls, etc., typically won’t help at all, because they’re only going to act when there’s a threat of a lawsuit or other legal action.
If you really want resolution, and you’re willing to pay for it, then I’d recommend calling the Private Student Loan Relief Helpline and asking them to pursue this on your behalf. You’ll have to pay them for their time, but they will get right on it, and should be able to get you a resolution much faster than simply waiting around for DeVry to deal with it.
You can reach the Private Student Loan Relief Helpline by calling 1-866-530-9946.
Hi,
I contacted my direct federal student loan servicer and they had no answers or help for me other than pay your amount due now. I owe 55k in Federal loans from DeVry and I am in the timeframe outlined by the FTC. I have called and emailed my loan servicer and I get a generic response each time. They tell me I signed the promissory note and therefore am responsible.
Hi Dana,
Is your Federal Student Loan Servicer Navient? Reason I ask is that they were just hit with three major lawsuits from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, alleging that they’ve been actively misleading borrowers, obscuring student loan relief benefits, and preventing people from accessing the financial assistance that they deserve.
In fact, I think we’re just a few weeks or a couple months away from seeing one of the biggest student loan forgiveness benefits ever getting instituted, and I’ve written a page specifically about the topic. Check out my page on the Navient Student Loan Debt Cancellation and Forgiveness Program for details.
Tim,
Are you absolutely sure about your comment above regarding the scope of which loan types are included in the agreement?
Here is the text from the final order, which clearly states that forgiveness only applies to “private” loans issued by Devry:
A total of Thirty Million Three Hundred Fifty-One Thousand and
Nineteen Dollars ($30,351,019) in forgiveness of unpaid private
student loans that DeVry issued directly to current or past students of
DeVry University.
Link to the document: https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/cases/161215_devry_stipulationrefinalorder.pdf
Hi Andrew,
It looks like I was wrong about assuming that ALL DeVry related loans would be receiving forgiveness and refunds, because the ruling has recently been clarified that it’s ONLY DeVry issued debt which is getting automatic relief.
However, it’s also emerged that anyone with debt related to DeVry is basically guaranteed forgiveness via the Defense Against Repayment Provision, so if you’ve got loans for DeVry that weren’t issued by DeVry, you need to get started working on your Borrower’s Defense letter ASAP.
Great news! Does this also affect federal loans? I’ve searched around and can only find information specifying private loans issued by DeVry.
Hi Josh,
Yes, this will apply to Federal Loans as well. It’s almost always easier to qualify for Federal forgiveness benefits, so you should be covered here as well. If you want to verify, contact the Department of Education, then come back and let me know if I was right so I can make sure that I’m not sending out bad info. Thank you!
Hi Tim and Josh,
Reading the FTC blog is sadly does not look like this settlement is going to cover federal loans…
https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/devry-settles-claims-deceptive-advertising-100-million
If you search through this the Bridget “person” constantly says that federal loans are not covered.
Really would like some more information on this
Thanks for the update Anthony. It’s a bummer, but I’m glad you did the extra step of checking on Borrower’s Defense Against Repayment, and I think that’s going to be the best way to proceed now. It’s a slam-dunk case, so at least you know the work you’ll put into crafting your application letter won’t be for naught. Thank again, I really appreciate your updates!
How does this affect other students who went to school in 2003/2004. I attended and needless to say they were not good and I didn’t not benefit from an education there. I had trouble finding a decent job until I turned to a government funded program to assist with Technical Training and Job Placement.
Hi Mike,
If you don’t qualify for the benefit based on the eligibility requirements in the post, then you won’t be impacted by this program at all. Unfortunately, there’s nothing on offer for anyone outside of the stated eligibility window.
Can I get a lawyer and sue for he full amount I paid with my veteran school benefits? I would like to go to a real college and get a real degree that’s respected in he real world. I used most my gibill onndevry and would like to sue to get my money back. Is this possible? What type lawyer should I seek out? Thanks in advance Jim
Hi Elijah,
You could definitely speak to an attorney about this, but a better option is pursuing the Borrower’s Defense Against Repayment option, which lets you get all your loans forgiven entirely. I’m not aware of any lawsuits where someone brought legal action against the school and received a full and complete refund. You will need to talk to a lawyer about it and see if they think it’s a possible route to take, but I’d say it’s highly unlikely to work.
I wanted to share some information regarding those who might have attended DeVry outside of the 2008 – 2015 timeframe. I attended both ITT Tech. 2000-2002, and DeVry University 2002-2004 and I has fed the same BS as those within the 2008-2015 timeline.
I thought to myself, how can I PROVE that I was mislead and lied to about the job placement, value of the degree, help from career services and the quality of the education? Since it was over 16 years ago I didn’t have much in the way of supporting documents. So early last year I went to “The Wayback Machine” found at https://archive.org/web/.
I was able to not only get screen-shots of the DeVry website from 1999-2007, but I was able to download pdf copies of the same 90% job placement stats that DeVry was using before, during, and after I attended DeVry from 2002-2004. I have a dozen marketing brochures with the false claims and substantial misrepresentations, that I relied on as being the truth, which convinced me to enroll in the BS Technical Management program.
As it turns out, DeVry has removed the downloadable links to these marketing brochures. I would be happy to share these with defrauded students like myself who did not fall into the 2008- 2015 timeframe.
I am trying to figure out how to do this without bringing a lot of attention to myself. I hope this helps.
Maybe I can send them to Tim and he can put them on this blog/website?
Good luck to all!
Roland! You are a genius! If you can email these to me, I’d be happy to load them into the DeVry Forgiveness page and share them with everyone else. I would love to host these so people can use them in their Borrower’s Defense applications. I’ll send you a private email to give you my contact info.
I will need help in what you did in order to erase my old Student Loan Debt accumulating interest from 1998. DeVry did not fulfill their commitment in placing over 90% of Grads guaranteed in job placements within 6 months after Graduation. I am so desperate of this and need you help in accomplishing this mission. Please tell me what you have done and what was your outcome.
Thanks,
Ann
Hi Ann,
If you were told that over 90% of Grads had guaranteed job placement then you should use that for why you deserve a discharge on a Borrower’s Defense Application. That’s exactly the type of claim that school’s aren’t allowed to make if they can’t prove it, and it’s something you can use as evidence that you were lied to.
I will go to https://archive.org/web/ I am searching through my things if I can find any materials of this.
This have caused me a setback in not pursuing my American Dream because DeVry refused to place me in a job with their vendors list after Graduation. It was horrible. Most of the Advisors and Career Placement Workers back then are no longer working here at Addison, IL plant.
Thanks,
Ann
Hi Tim thanks for all your hard work.
I was one of the unfortunate people who fell for this school and am in debt pretty bad.
Looking back on it I am not sure what I was thinking. I was young, lost my parents, did not have much guidance. Also it was early 2008, so it was before I formed the habit of taking to Google to do research on everything I did in life. I asked my grandfather who worked for a well respected aerospace company his opinion and he said he knew guys that got good jobs after going there. Anyways doesn’t matter now. I just had one question for you and wanted to provide some information for other people reading this article.
Question: While it seems like a lot of money. Most people who went to this school are over 50K in debt. I’m just not sure how far this money is going to go to help us out. What do you think?
Some info: I contacted DeVry and they said they plan on providing notification to eligible students by Jan 18 2017. I found this out by taking some of your advice and contacting the school.
Cheers!
Thanks for the kind words Anthony, and thanks for letting me know that deadline of Jan 18th, I’m going to update the post to announce that to everyone else who’s in the same shoes.
I do think that the money that DeVry is putting up will cover most of the education costs of the people impacted by their closure. I think you should be in a very good spot once all is said is done, with all or at least the vast majority of your debt entirely discharged, at no cost to yourself.
It’s hard to say though – I don’t know how much outstanding debt there is for DeVry for the impacted time period. The good news? If your Jan 18th deadline is correct, we’ll know soon!
Thanks Anthony, and please come back when you do hear from them to let me know what they said. I’d definitely be interested in finding out what they’re going to offer you.
Any idea if students that already paid loans off will get anything back?
Hi Jason,
I have no idea. We’ll know soon though – DeVry has promised to notify everyone by January 18th.
This is great news for these students. Do you see a similar action coming for Trump U students?
IF Trump University got hit with a fine and penalty from the Federal Government, then it could happen. We’ll have to see how the Trump U cases get sorted out. Once he’s President though, the odds dramatically decrease…
Please leave any comments, questions or concerns you have about this article here.
Why isn’t the ruling applicable for those who attended/graduated before 2008? I finished my last courses in December of 2007.
Hi Matthew,
That’s just the way they decided it. These things always come with specific rules, start and end dates. Sorry that you weren’t included in the cut, but don’t give up yet, because you can still make a play for a Defense Against Repayment Discharge.
Hi Tim,
Thanks for this information. I was wondering if the refunds apply to one of DeVry’s subsidiaries, namely Chamberlain College of Nursing. Please let me know, and thanks in advance.
Margo
Hi Margo,
I’m not sure if DeVry’s subsidiary schools are included in this, but you could contact the Student Loan Ombudsman to find out. This is a free, Government-funded organization of attorneys who offer legal advice about student loans. I think they’re you’re best bet to getting a solid answer.
Hi Tim, thank you so much for this information, it was very insightful. I was also wondering if you knew any information on getting my federal perkins loan from DeVry forgiven as well, Please and thanks for your time and keep up the good work!
Hi Elvyn,
That’s a good question – and I think that Perkins loans will probably be eligible for the forgiveness benefit as well. Perkins loans do have their own program too if you haven’t seen that yet, called Perkins Loan Cancellation, and you are probably also eligible to get the loan wiped out with a Borrower’s Defense Against Repayment Discharge, so you should look into that option as well.
Hi Tim,
I went to Devry during the stated time periods and received a bachelors degree. I’m currently repaying loans. Can I apply for the Borrowers defense against repayment? If so, do I need to provide proof of Devrys actions and do I need to enlist legal help?
Hi Rahyan,
Yes, you can qualify, and yes, you do need to explain clearly what they did that was illegal or deceptive or fraudulent. I would recommend getting help from the Student Loan Relief Helpline, which is a service that handles all sorts of student loan debt issues, and who are experts at crafting Borrowers Defense to Repayment applications that get approved.
You’re going to have to pay for their help, but if you have a large outstanding loan balance, then it will definitely be worth it.
If you have Federal loans, call the Federal Student Loan Relief Helpline at: 1-888-906-3065
If you have Private loans, call the Private Student Loan Relief Helpline at: 1-866-530-9946
I applied for borrowers defense today against DeVry after reading this last month. I did not seek outside help so I don’t know how it will go! Due to the HUGE amount I’m paying to Navient and Fed Loan servicing I can’t afford a lawyer or to pay anyone else. Thanks for this insightful read and please wish me luck!
Hi did you receive any good news yet? I should here something by next month. I have a bachelor’s and master’s degree. I owe $191,000 in student loans.