Forgiveness

How This 37-Year-Old Got $50,000 Of Her Student Loans Forgiven

Meet Natasha Jackson.

She’s one of the lucky few who received student loan forgiveness from the federal government.

Here’s her story and how it can help you with your student loans.

Student Loan Forgiveness

According to Make Lemonade, there are more than 44 million borrowers who collectively owe $1.5 trillion of student loans.

Jackson, nurse, is one of less than 1% of all borrowers who applied for public service loan forgiveness — and was approved to have her student loans forgiven.

With an undergraduate and law degree from Boston University, Jackson , graduated with over $80,000 in federal student loans and $30,000 in private student loans. Today, Jackson, who lives in Somerville, Massachusetts, is now student loan debt-free, as her remaining $50,000 of federal student loans were forgiven in June.

When did you first hear about public service loan forgiveness?

I graduated in 2007, so I followed the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program from its inception. I don’t recall exactly how I learned about it, but it was either on the news or I found out about it through facebook.

At the time, what did you believe were the requirements for public service loan forgiveness?

The requirements, at first, seemed so simple: just make your payments every month and work in a government or non-profit job. I knew nothing could ever be that simple, though. So, I tried to keep tabs on the program over the years. I always had the mentality of “don’t count your chickens before they hatch.”

When you started student loan repayment, did you have a student loan repayment strategy?

I had a basic strategy of throwing any extra money I had at my private student loans first. The first few years, I had so little income that I could only make my minimum payments. As the years went by, I put my tax refunds and a little extra each month to pay down my private loan first.

Which federal repayment plan did you choose?

I only had Direct loans all along, and I feel very lucky that I did. I don’t think I knew that there were other types of federal loans that didn’t qualify for public service loan forgiveness until very late in this game. I chose the income-based repayment plan, which was essential given my approximately $37,000 salary for the first few years out of school.

What, if anything, was most confusing about the public service loan forgiveness process?

The hardest part was often reading the news. Every budget season bought the onslaught of news articles about how the program was going to be killed or limited.

What was also hard is that the loan servicer really knew just as little about the program as you did. Even over the last year, when I was contacting them regularly about my last few payments and application process, I often got different answers or just a plain old “I don’t know” to many questions. It felt like we were making this process up as we went along.

What is your best advice for borrowers who are want to receive public service loan forgiveness?

Don’t avoid the problem. Call today and get help with managing your payments. The solution is out there!

What is Student Loan Forgiveness?

Loan forgiveness is the cancellation of all or some portion of your federal student loan balance. Yes, that’s right—cancellation of your loan balance. If your loan is forgiven, you are no longer required to repay that loan

Borrowers may contact the Certified Enrollment Center to get information on individual borrower eligibility.

Certified Enrollment Center
Phone: 866-418-8576
Monday – Friday | 7am to 6pm PST

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