Is Public Service Loan Forgiveness a gamble?
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Anonymous
| My daughter, a current senior and aspiring school psychologist, recently went through the graduate admissions process for Masters/Educational Specialist programs in the field. Unfortunately, as luck would have it, she did not get accepted into the two state schools she applied to (whose acceptance rates are ~15% — had no idea this field was so competitive!) and got into one OOS Public and two privates — which would cost $95K, $66K, and $72K respectively. Which is a lot considering the field isn’t exactly high paying to begin with. The State schools would have only cost $25k for the program. She has about $10k saved in the bank. She brought up the PSLF program but I worry this may be too much of a gamble given current administration and I have heard horror stories and all the lawsuits going on. What do you think? |
Anonymous
| She needs to go to her state school. If she doesn't have the money and you cannot help, its not a question what to choose. I wouldn't trust those programs and she has to stick to specific jobs. |
Anonymous
She did not get accepted to the state schools. |
Anonymous
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She should wait a year and reapply, and perhaps try to meet with someone in the department who can advise on what to do to strengthen her application.
Sadly the PSLF program is too risky. |
Anonymous
| Way too risky to take on that kind of debt. Many competitive grad programs want their applicants to have some time between undergrad and grad. She's better off working in a related field and then reapplying in a year or two. I offer this as someone who practices public interest law, went to state school and still had student loans. I cannot imagine having borrowed for OOS or private school. |
Anonymous
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The PSLF is basically a failure, unfortunately. I was just reading that about 1% of apparently eligible people have been approved. I'm in a FB group of thousands of a particular type of fed employee and veeeery few people have been approved. Everyone else was put on the wrong repayment plan despite asking again and again to confirm, or some other sort of problem that essentially reset their clocks back to zero.
Also, Trump's 2020 budget proposes scrapping the program. There may not be a groundswell of Congressional supporters to protect it, since it's been such a failure. Definitely don't count on PSLF! |
Anonymous
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Seems like anti PLSF trolls here. There are no legal issues with PLSF today only horror stories about people who did not understand the program.
That said it sounds like your child should improve her app and apply again. Maybe get a job and in state tuition somewhere less competitive. |
Anonymous
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I would never rely on loan forgiveness. Better options out there. Reapply to the state school next year while banking $$ this year while living at home. Perhaps get a job at the state school she is interested in and attend classes very cheaply. Isn't the deal with loan forgiveness that you pay back TEN years before forgiveness would set in? If you get married, doesn't the repayment amount reset with the additional income?
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Anonymous
People who say something you don’t agree with are not trolls, for god sakes. We are real people who were screwed by the supposed PSLF, and NOT because we were aware of the supposed rules when the program started. Sheesh. |
Anonymous
| Please correct me if I am wrong. Isn't loan forgiveness for federal loans only? Will your DD receive all fed loans or have to opt for some private loans that YOU will have to co-sign? |
Anonymous
Yeah, no. https://www.npr.org/2018/10/17/653853227/the-student-loan-whistleblower |
Anonymous
Statistics show that less that 100 people have qualified for PSLF. That's an issue, any way you slice it. |
Anonymous
| Do schools still offer graduate assistantships? I have a masters in education (not counseling, but close) and everyone I knew had a “job” that covered tuition and a stipend. I was in residential life, so had a free apartment as part of my package. Others worked in the counseling office or admissions or student affairs. I’m out of the field now so I don’t know how it works anymore. If she wants to be a school psychologist, programs like that would also giver her good experience and exposure. she should look into those options (even if that means reapplying for the following year). |
Anonymous
That is not true the company running the program committed fraud and was giving bonuses to employees who found ways to deny the loan forgiveness. |
Anonymous
| Apply to the same in state program for Spring. It sucks. Have her volunteer in the Fall. |