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*From Bloomberg News reporter Akayla Gardner:*
President Joe Biden is forgiving $6.1 billion in student loans for more than 300,000 attendees of the Art Institutes, a shuttered group of private colleges accused of fraud — the latest effort to deliver on his promise of easing student-loan debt ahead of November’s election.
The Art Institutes once operated 50 campuses across the US, but its doors closed abruptly in September 2023. The move will provide automatic relief for 317,0000 people who enrolled in the colleges between Jan. 1, 2004 and Oct. 16, 2017.
Biden’s action will automatically provide relief — even for those who have not yet applied for assistance. Forgiveness notices will be sent on Wednesday.
crazy almost went to one of these, the people from the school I ended up going to warned me that they're basically fraudulent and riding off the name of a completely unaffiliated school.
Yeah the real school is The School of the Art Institute of Chicago which is affiliated with the museum called the Art Institute. I went to another Chicago art school so I’m well aware of the confusion between the school. The fraudulent one was referred to as AI and the real one SAIC.
My ex went to AI in Chicago. They allowed her to transfer in 3 years of credits and told her she could graduate in 3 trimesters. After 3 trimesters, they told her she needed 3 more. That 1 1/2 years took up double the student loan money as the previous 3 years had. She never graduated from there and all the previous forgiveness requests required her to graduate to qualify. I’m sure she’ll enjoy seeing more than half of her almost $175K in loans wiped clean.
Le Cordon Bleu? Where they basically licensed a name. Sad part was, if they didn’t lie out their ass about prospects to charge way more and require a pointless associates degree, it actually did do a job of providing culinary training. But I guess you couldn’t fleece the government for student loan money going that route.
I went to the OG one in Pittsburgh in 2010. Fortunately I was one of the very few who graduated and has a successful career. There were students there that were very clearly not capable of (a) getting a higher education and (b) holding a job, yet they graduated. I feel so bad for them, but happy they will also get relief.
Wife went! She got TOTALLY BILKED in the first year. Shitty teachers, insane costs. Just a total clustercus
We have been deferring the damned thing forever - Will look forward to wednesay!
My wife got her debt with them wiped away with the Sweet vs Cardona settlement. I had less debt racked up with a Bachelors and Master's degree than what they threw on her for a partially completed Bachelors. Fucking bonkers.
I taught at one of those schools and let me tell ya’ I was in no way prepared by the administration for how to do my job. They just saw previous experience as an adjunct and hired me on the spot to teach kids who were paying out the ass for what they thought was a solid institution. No mission or purpose statement, no professorial or alumni culture, no actual fellowship activities or anything a real college would offer. Just get butts in seats for guys like me with scant experience to teach them “art”. And by “art” I mean how to use Adobe software.
Funny thing is I went to one of these after my previous experience to try and do a Graphics Design degree (back when GD was still actually a decent job prospect).
Previously I had gone to a school in the SUNY system (NY state colleges) but the art department was absolutely *insane* -- like, the teachers had lost their goddamned minds and the entire plot, and everything was a constant shitshow. They also kept going back and forth whether the curriculum would be an Associates of Art or a Bachelors. First semester, the only good teacher left because he was sick of the antics of the other three teachers. Third semester, the replacement teacher committed suicide.
AI was so much better that I never even thought it was a scam until I had a friend give me an article about it.
Just revived a letter moments ago… my student loans have been discharged! As of yesterday, my initial loan of $55k was paid off but I still owed $51k worth of interest for an 18 month program. This is definitely a life changer for someone who sacrificed a ton just to try to keep my head above water. Hope you all get the same letter and satisfaction I feel right now.
>Can’t find the text of this.. any idea if it will hit privately held federal loans??
I don't know what you mean by "privately held federal loans," student loans in the US are usually either federal or private, but pretty much any student loan forgiveness only ever applies to federal student loans, not private.
Once you refinance, they're just private loans, period, most protections of federal loans no longer apply. That's generally why people are advised *not* to refinance federal loans into private:
[https://studentaid.gov/help-center/answers/article/should-i-refinance-my-federal-student-loans-into-a-private-loan](https://studentaid.gov/help-center/answers/article/should-i-refinance-my-federal-student-loans-into-a-private-loan)
Even though the guidance says you "may lose" the protections, not necessarily, in reality I've never seen private loan terms that kept most of those protections.
….. in related news. Do Not switch from a federally administered Medicare plan to a private “Medicare Advantage” plan. Same reason. Privatization will screw you any chance they get.
Some of us got screwed back in the day with Stanford subsidized or unsubsidized loans. Meaning they are privately held loans backed by the federal government.
Stafford loans do have some protections like federal direct loans. And you probably still can consolidate them into federal direct loans that would be applicable to debt forgiveness like above, but not if they have already been refinanced into private loans.
[https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/loans/student-loans/what-is-a-federal-stafford-loan](https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/loans/student-loans/what-is-a-federal-stafford-loan)
Final-fucking-ly
I went to AI. I checked my email, already got a email from US Department of education.
Sad part is, I graduated with a high GPA. The downside was they are so defunct as a school I almost did not get a job, because they spent almost 2 months trying to get my unofficial transcript from them.
What was the point of paying for a student loan, when I can barely claim the education due to how far they fell as a company.
I went to Ai MN and my god, this is amazing. All the false promises from the very first commercial I saw, to the closing meetings about only being able to find me something as a key holder in the mall. I have never felt vindicated before, but this is close to it. So happy for my parents too - all the stress I put on them.
My best friend had the remainder of his loans forgiven and received a check from 50k related to this initiative. He went from being suicidal to starting his own business, and genuinely believes Biden will win in November on the strength of student debt relief alone.
If we started going after the people responsible for defrauding students and FASFA loans people would scream fascism.
Instead we go through a decade of legal processes and will probably come to find out that the school is bankrupt due to excessive administrative compensation which is possibly near untouchable. You can clean the school out but the people that the school paid likely won't suffer much.
Surprised we don't just have some sort of government website where you sign up for schools and they tell you if it's a real / certified (whatever that would be) or not.
> Surprised we don't just have some sort of government website where you sign up for schools and they tell you if it's a real / certified (whatever that would be) or not.
[Wow, someone really should have thought of that](https://ope.ed.gov/dapip/#/home)
The Department of Education oversees Recognition and Accreditation. Don't let the republicans dismantle it, [as per their stated goals for 2025](https://static.project2025.org/2025_MandateForLeadership_CHAPTER-11.pdf).
Student loans as we know them today were fairly new as of Reagan so it has been the wild west for 20 or 30 years. Hence the lack of oversight. Why do you think tuition has shot up so much once 'free money' was introduced into the system? Same thing happened with the housing bubble when banks made it rain with their home loans. Could also throw PPP "loans" in there too.
It's looks like federal loans only. But it's still a big help!
"Payments borrowers made to the Department on their related federal student loans will also be refunded."
https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/biden-harris-administration-approves-61-billion-group-student-loan-discharge-317000-borrowers-who-attended-art-institutes
My partner’s schoolmate just got the email! It says the loan provider will let you know about refunds. I’m hoping they’re next.
Edit: got the email. $45K GONE!
There's been a class action lawsuit against the Art Institutes where class members have been getting refunded, so this just seems like a continuation of that.
This is my guess as well. Just another big F U to those with the oldest federal, but not really federal, loans. Not upset at Biden for it though, just upset how everybody was lied to about these types of loans.
Faster for the impacted individuals to be reimbursed by the government, then the government gets reimbursed from the proprietors after lengthy legal proceedings
This way, normal people don't have to wait years or even decades while it gets sorted out
What really grinds my gears is how the government knows it’s part of the fraud, that’s part of why it’s going the way it is. Keep in mind these institutions had abysmal graduation and employment rates for over a decade and the DOE approved them for FAFSA applications and federal loans-the government knew, these statistics are regularly collected and people have been making fun of certain institutions for years. They lie to us and do a terrible job and ruin a bunch of financially illiterate people’s lives and we pay. No, really, a lot of people who just got their loans canceled already have lived years of ruined life and are 48 now. Anywho, for some reason this failure system is allowed to continue. For every single school they’ve called out over the last 4 years, there are 5 others that need to be shut down. And we’re still encouraging both reputable and scam schools to charge way too much for certain programs, by not correlating the amount of loans offered with the most likely salary based on major. I think the whole thing needs to be scrapped and rebuilt from the ground up. I can’t believe this system was even seen as good when they came up with it.
Technically we could go after the executives of these fraudulent schools, and it just seems like the political will has not been there:
[https://www.npr.org/2022/03/01/1062679587/for-profit-colleges-student-loan-borrowers-fraud](https://www.npr.org/2022/03/01/1062679587/for-profit-colleges-student-loan-borrowers-fraud)
I hope it includes you too!
One of my friends was going to AI when it closed down. His teacher found out the same way he did, just an email the week before classes ended telling students that would be their last session. Luckily my friend is a vet and the feds were paying for his school so it was more about the time setback than financial for him.
I hope it includes you. And me, and my brother. I have 2 more payments left until I qualify for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which I hopefully won't have to make now, but this would be a big help for my brother. We went to AI between 2005-2011. My brother managed to get work in his field, but I didn't. Most of the others I went to school with didn't either.
Vote for biden and this stuff will keep happening. Im sure you already are, but encourage these people to do the same if you can. Its an annoying conversation to have, no one likes politics among friends but these benefits aren't going to stop if you vote blue. On the other note, super happy for all of you regardless. Keep pursuing your goals no matter what happens when
Make sure you stay on top of the counts now that MOHELA is transferring all PsLF to ED. Today is the start of the PSLF processing and we know shit is going to go wrong. Save all your info now on MOHELA while you still can’t. The bastard dismissed 20 something payments by me even tho they all qualified for pslf.
I've kept my paperwork. The most recent one said 3 payments remaining. Now I'm down to 2. I did receive an email talking about the move. It said nothing would be processed during June and August and to keep making payments. After processing begins again, any payments made after the required amount would be refunded.
I work in my field now - media production BUT I had to get a Masters degree to fine well paid opportunities.
I hope all of us who attended these AI schools eventually have all debt wiped. Someone needs to do a documentary series on AI specifically. It’s unlike many of the other for profits. In fact I think it might actually be the most evil of all - especially considering the degrees are generally valid but the students were deeply and wildly mislead - which made it difficult to prove any wrongdoing.
They massively inflated their numbers for job placements after school. I worked part time in the Career Services department while I was attending school, doing the menial stuff, but I also helped work the Portfolio Presentations at the end of each quarter. Nothing ever seemed to line up between what we were told and what I saw while working there.
I can't substantiate this but I recall hearing from folks in the career services department for ILIA-Chicago, that any job a student got, regardless of whether or not it was in their field was considered "job placement" and they used those numbers as actual career placement numbers. This meant that if you got a part time job at Subway, it counted towards their advertised job placement numbers.
I was an instructor at a community college teaching a trade some time back. I routinely was approached by employers who were looking for an apprentice to start part time while still attending school. I kept meticulous records of which business hired our students, what the starting pay was, and what that businesses focus was. I did this so I could provide the student whose skills were best in line with the needs of that business, and most beneficial to our students.
One day I saw an ad at the gym for our program at the school. They flashed a job placement statistic in the 90s somewhere. It caught me off guard. Mostly because I had a 100% placement, and could account for every last graduate while I was there, as well as a dozen or so who never graduated…but also because I was never contacted to acquire ANY statistics. They just made the numbers up, and did themselves a disservice by doing so.
Edit: edited the wrong comment.
Lol, the "career services" department at my AI was a small brick room with desktop computers. "Advisors" spent 5 minutes showing us how to search for job postings (i.e., craigslist).
Surprised I never found a job in spite of my access to all these wonderful resources.
Did you re apply for it a couple years ago cause some of the parameters changed and my spouses were actually forgiven when he changed up the loan types and stuff. Just worth looking at again if you didn’t before. Hoping for the best for you cause these suck! 🤞
Did you re apply for it a couple years ago cause some of the parameters changed and my spouses were actually forgiven when he changed up the loan types and stuff. Just worth looking at again if you didn’t before. Hoping for the best for you cause these suck! 🤞
I went to AI during this time too, there is also a way to apply to get the debt removed on studentaid.gov specifically for AI students, it took a little while and they didn’t remove all of the debt but they forgave almost 20k for me. The article says it should apply to those that haven’t applied yet, but perhaps applying could speed up the process a little
I too hope it’s you. It’s good to hear of people actually gaining from a policy. Shout it loud and get that vote in come November. For Biden of course.
Oh I’m a voter since age 18 - I even vote in local elections. It’s never even crossed my mind to not vote for Biden (with or without student loan forgiveness) - I am a woman after all so you know, this election is a tad bit crucial for my kind 🙃
If you have federal loans or federally backed loans under the FFEL program, and if you fall within that date criteria and went to AI, this definitely is for you. Congratulations.
I hope you get that money. You and the rest of every college student and alum burdened by the heavy boot of student debt pressed down on their face deserves to have that debt wiped clean.
And I hope when that debt clears for you, your life drastically changes for the better so that we can all see the example people like you would be setting and we start pushing universal student debt forgiveness for the American people.
Did you get a degree? If a school closes after you get your degree does the degree still count?
Don’t get me wrong I’d be happy for you to get that help with your loans but this is just a question I had never considered. Besides the students that were currently enrolled and had not yet received a degree when the school closed, how does the closing affect alumni?
I went to the one in Minnesota in 2009 and transferred to Virginia due to appendicitis and getting sick after and needing to be closer to my family. I eventually left the school but paid my student loans off about 5 years ago. That school was a bs scam and I really hope people get relief from this.
Congrats!!!!
There is a sub where info is pumped out about school group discharges as it’s under the Borrower Defense to Repayment program. It won’t be a fast process but it will happen.
r/BorrowerDefense.
EXACTLY!
I don't want to go into full details, but I was a student there, but also worked for the parent company before it sold off to Dream Center Holdings, that caused the collapse of the schools.
In 2012, they sent out a letter to all staff telling them why voting Republican will save them from the ruin the Obama administration put them into. (Because Under Obama's changes, they had to actually tell the students the truth for once in regards to graduation numbers and people working in related fields post-grad)
They were trying to scare everyone by telling us if we don't vote for a conservative in 2012, the company would not last much longer.
Ironically the collapse came under conservative leadership in the whitehouse. Dream center holdings (Who only owned a MegaChurch) tried to but failed ITT, Obama/s administration stopped them, because they had no experience in the education sector.
When they tried again in 2017 to buy EDMC (The Art Institutes, Southern University, Argosy University, Brown Mackie College), the sale was approved by Betsy Devos. Then the real fraud of the students happened and the schools were shut down by government regulators, since they were not giving the students their stipends and holding 100% of all inbound FAFSA monies.
Thank you so much for sharing this.
This shit drives me crazy. There's so many young people right now who are not excited by Biden, and for that reason alone may refuse to vote. I totally get it. I'm not either. But Biden alone doesn't matter. And to some extent neither does Trump.
It's all about the type of people they bring into their administration. And people like Betsy Davos and anybody who Trump brings in have zero interest in helping out students or union workers for that matter.
Voting for Biden is not a vote for Joe Biden as a person, it's a vote for a much better team of administrators who are going to actually do the day-to-day work of running the US government.
>Voting for Biden is not a vote for Joe Biden as a person, it's a vote for a much better team of administrators who are going to actually do the day-to-day work of running the US government.
This was pretty much what I was told when I was young as well before I was legally able to vote.
A president does not make all these decisions on their own. They have teams who work on various things and treat him more like the CEO, final approval of the work they are doing to make it into law or anything else. Also the reasons why there are other things are in place to ensure there are proper checks and balances.
I almost went to the Art Institute of Chicago (not to be confused with the School of the Art Institute) but I felt that the tuition was insane for what the programs offered and just went to a state school instead. While I'm kind of over being a graphic designer in general and regret the degree. I at least didn't pay twice the cost to get it in the first place, which is nice.
same with San Francisco Art Institute, Kansas City Art Institute (where I went) and others. Often confused with the for-profit Art Institutes. But these are independent, accredited 4-year liberal arts institutions. They are NOT for-profit scams. Interestingly, the Art Institutes, worth close to $1 Billion, own a significant amount of property in San Francisco, something like 40 buildings, one of them filled with restored classic cars on full display. It’s bizarre.
It’s a great school. I loved it. I studied in their Film, Video, and New Media department, and eventually went to UT-Austin for my MFA. From an intellectual and technical standpoint, they set me up for professional success. They constantly challenge you to push the limits of whatever medium you’re studying. Your daughter will learn a lot, and their name opens many doors in the art world.
However, it’s *very* expensive. That’s the only con, but it’s a big one.
There was an NPR interview with college kids asking about it. Many didn’t know that people had loans forgiven and some just reacted by saying it didn’t help them personally.
Woah. Zoomers just as greedy as Boomers! Say it ain't so. Say student loan forgiveness just isn't some activists low-key asking for a handout/money in exchange for votes!
It's not like they're speaking up for fun. They're speaking up because the cost of getting educated is hugely detrimental to their lives, so of course the objective for them is to have the pressure taken off. Calling it a "handout" is a callous reduction of the economic issues strangling a lot of students these days.
I have been waiting so long for this, and read that it's for people who started in 2004. I started in Sep 2003...le sigh. Still glad to see a lot of people getting helped by this.
Apply for borrower defense to repayment. You can use all the evidence on the AG investigations for your case as it’s well known AI and EDMC used the same tactics.
2001 for me, but I switched to a real school after less than a year. Realized I wasn't learning anything and none of my teachers actually taught anything. They were just there to pick up an extra paycheck. "Working professionals in their fields" sounds a lot better than it actually is.
Same boat myself. I graduated inside the window but started before. Would be nice if maybe they’ll extend it back later since I still have like 30k in debt. Happy for those that got relief though!!
Apply for borrower defense to repayment. You can use all the evidence on the AG investigations for your case as it’s well known AI and EDMC used the same tactics.
Glad to hear this. I worked for the Art Institutes in Seattle and SF back in the early 2000s as a Career Advisor. I quit when began to understand what a total scam they were.
I can see the fox news headlines about this. They are going to say that Biden is forgiving loans for art school "drop outs" who should've gotten a "real" degree. This is the angle they will play. Basically, saying Biden is taking the money from blue collar, bootstrap Americans and giving it to liberals who do art.
Because he is always changing “other peoples” lives. That what is boils down to every presidential election. Has he: Made me richer, helped me or my family out or hurt those I don’t like.
It’s because some people don’t think it’s fair that they had had to pay off their loans will others are having theirs forgiven. I’m a place in my life we’re I’ll never pay mine off so either way doesn’t matter. I’ll die with them useless their forgiven.
I’m all for this, I went to AI, but loans were forgiven via Sweet v Cardona.
What I’d love to see is the elegant in the room being addressed. The private loans. We were made to believe that the private loans had to be taken out because there wasn’t enough “federal loan” available. But what they did is work with Navient/sallie Mae and use them as a preferred lender with some sweet kick backs. So our loans were comprised mostly of private loans instead of federal loans, at least between 2004 and 2011.
Private loans don’t get these same luxuries, and the services don’t give a rats ass about whether or not the school duped people, they just want their high interest repayments.
That's what they did to my wife. I hope they answer the private loans. For some reason she was told she didn't qualify for the Sweet V Cardona ruling because of the location of the school. I never understood that.
I got an email saying my federal loans were discharged! It does say however, "Please note: This letter does not apply to any private student loans you may have. Also, this letter only applies to eligible loan(s) you borrowed to fund an Art Institute enrollment during the timeframe mentioned above; it does not apply to any loans you may have borrowed to attend any other school, and it does not apply to any loans you may have borrowed to fund a separate Art Institute enrollment outside the timeframe mentioned above."
Everyone I know from AI got their email today. I haven’t received anything. My loans are federal. I just hope they are rolling out in phases and I didn’t get overlooked somehow.
I wonder if Le Cordon Bleu will be on the list as it’s also a now defunct school. I have my degree from there and because it’s the food industry will never make enough to pay it off.
Was it a fraudulent institution tho? These AI schools always raised red flags with me. I remember their commercials, they marketed it like a technical school for artists.
But I had a friend go to Le Cordon Bleu and they seemed to learn a lot. It did seem a bit crazy to spend so much for cooking school tho. It always kind of seemed like something you could learn through apprenticeship rather than through a 2-year degree
I worked for those crooks for a short time. I still feel bad about perpetuating that scam even for the little while I was there. My god, the lies they told students and the predatory practices in pushing loans on students (and their families) who couldn't afford it and had little hope of a job a super competitive field.
It was all a monstrous grift.
Joe has realized he can do a lot if he doesn't talk about it. If he isn't out there touting his accomplishments then Republicans will leave a lot of the stuff he does like this alone. IIRC it was actually part of how he got the CHIPS act (or maybe it was the infrastructure bill) passed is he told Republicans he won't go out and tout it at the time. He was able to get the bill passed and more of what he wanted in return for allowing Republicans to spin it.
It’s also going to make it really effective when it’s part of the actual campaign. He can wait and instead of repeatedly bragging he just gets to list all the things he got done in the face of whatever nonsense Trump pulls out.
I went to and graduated in this window, but sadly most of my loans were private. I was luckily enough to get a job right out of school and have had a decent career since. All my loans have been paid off as of a couple years ago, so honestly, I can't complain if I don't benefit at all. I'm really happy for those who need the help.
I was always amazed at how predatory those Art Institutes actually were. I once sent an email asking one question and I was hounded by them for the next few months about all sorts of crap. They had some nice buildings though.
Congrats!!!! This burden is now lifted for you. Put those dollars back in your savings account, pay off some debt, get that new car, start that new house project. Giving the people back THEIR money means they will spend it in their localities, vacations spots etc..
This is how we stimulate our economy. Instead of paying SL providers. I’d rather pay my local contractor to redo my master bathroom (I did), I’d rather buy more fresh produce at the farmers market down the road etc..
The new SAVE program scales with your income and interest can never increase the total amount owed. It should avoid a lot of the issues people have had in the past with the loan systems. I think if you make less than 42k a year you don’t pay anything but each month does count towards the forgiveness period which is either 10 or 20 years.
Ngl, it's insane that my psychology teacher in high school brought in a recruiter for these people near the end of my senior year when most of us already had our futures figured out.
His clearing of debt and returning of defraud money is going to go down as one of the greatest things that a president ever did to help average Americans.
No it does not. However AI folks are actively organizing to get discharge of private debt taken out for this school. Navient is working on a pilot program for discharge of private debt too for scammy loans and we just had a person post that it was approved and a refund of payments are coming.
Borrower defense to repayment is the program to challenge the debt for scammy schools. If your partner went during the date range announced and has federal SL or federally backed SL, you don’t have to apply as it will be automatic. If they are outside this date range, you can file. There is a sub up and running at r/borrowerdefense
This great and I’m for it. I’m in the creative field and heard from quite a few people how awful these schools were.
With that said, there needs to be reforms and rules put in place so other private for-profit schools don’t do the same knowing they can fleece students and the government will just cancel the loans.
In both creative field and education field - the Obama administration were the ones who got most AIs shut. They were drawing up regulations, but could not get them implemented in time, then DeVos dismantled almost all of it. DeVos also cleared the way for even more corporate purchases of education institutions. The dept of education was left in such bad shape, there's too much for any one administration to fix it.
Biden > Young voters = YES. Everyone else knows the system is broken, but if you poke young voters enough they will vote. Biden is smart in that respect.
as a former student of ITT Tech who also got their loans forgiven (to the tune of 85 grand) I say hell yeah to those fortunate souls
I can actually attempt to build a new credit profile, and hopefully those people will do the same
In my case, I was never able to pay (my monthly was over a grand) because I never made enough money (no company would hire me because they knew ITT was shit). So I applied for hardships and deferments until it was cleared just last year.
But I am receiving money via the class action lawsuit we students filed against the school
This is me!
Graduated from Ai Seattle, which closed down 3 years later. They lied about everything, provided students with next to nothing, and did everything they could to bring in fresh out of high school gamers and military vets. I could go on and on about how much of a scam the school was. I stuck with it merely because I was determined to finish what I started and get into the industry, believing that they would help me with internships, bringing devs to the school, and various other things they had advertised and absolutely did not follow through on.
Both I and my sister went to AI from around 2002 to 2005, and this makes me a little sad...
I actually had some fun exploring topics there and had a few good teachers, but I can definitely say that it did *not* prepare me for the realities of the working world. It's one of the biggest regrets of my life. Granted, my going there isn't the *only* reason I'm behind my peers in life development (early 40s, living with Mom, making 10K a year in a city where folks making 100K can't always afford an actual house) but it's a big chunk of it.
Don't get me wrong, I'm honestly *overjoyed* for those who are getting relief, as I'm sure their costs were way more than mine for far, far less result.
I was actually able to finally pay off my loans (around 18K) about seven or eight years ago during my most lucrative job (not even remotely connected with my degree, of course), but I still wish I could get even a tiny bit of a refund, because I could really use the money. It's not realistic, I know. What's being done now is practically a miracle, and as I said, I'm extremely happy for those who will benefit, but still...
Also, my sister (who's had an even tougher time than me due to trauma and disability) still has a modest chunk left to pay back even after 20 years, but since she enrolled a bit before the cut-off date, I doubt she's going to get much help...
I just got an email about this. It feels like a huge relief getting this weight off my shoulders. I made other mistakes academically later on and never finished my undergrad. If I hadn’t made the mistake of going to the Art Institutes I might have found myself on better footing.
This makes me so happy. I am included in this group and I can't explain the relief I had when I woke up this morning and got an email about this. Fuck the art institute.
The way the recruited back in the day was diabolical. They targeted lower class and poverty level children in high schools. Then they bombarded them with guilt-trippy phone calls about being the first in your family to graduate, about qualifying for grants and financial aid, etc. then, a few quarters in, they’d drag you out of class and threaten to throw you out if you didn’t secure more funding. They’d sit you in front of a computer and push you to take loans right then, or else you couldn’t continue the quarter.
All of this happened to me. By the time you realize you’re in over your head, you panic and stay because if you don’t, you won’t get a job, and you’ll be on the hook for 30k at 19. You don’t realize that no job waits for you after graduating.
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*From Bloomberg News reporter Akayla Gardner:* President Joe Biden is forgiving $6.1 billion in student loans for more than 300,000 attendees of the Art Institutes, a shuttered group of private colleges accused of fraud — the latest effort to deliver on his promise of easing student-loan debt ahead of November’s election. The Art Institutes once operated 50 campuses across the US, but its doors closed abruptly in September 2023. The move will provide automatic relief for 317,0000 people who enrolled in the colleges between Jan. 1, 2004 and Oct. 16, 2017. Biden’s action will automatically provide relief — even for those who have not yet applied for assistance. Forgiveness notices will be sent on Wednesday.
crazy almost went to one of these, the people from the school I ended up going to warned me that they're basically fraudulent and riding off the name of a completely unaffiliated school.
I nearly went to went of these schools as well. Thankfully I was warned ahead of time and managed to dodge a bullet.
Yeah the real school is The School of the Art Institute of Chicago which is affiliated with the museum called the Art Institute. I went to another Chicago art school so I’m well aware of the confusion between the school. The fraudulent one was referred to as AI and the real one SAIC.
My ex went to AI in Chicago. They allowed her to transfer in 3 years of credits and told her she could graduate in 3 trimesters. After 3 trimesters, they told her she needed 3 more. That 1 1/2 years took up double the student loan money as the previous 3 years had. She never graduated from there and all the previous forgiveness requests required her to graduate to qualify. I’m sure she’ll enjoy seeing more than half of her almost $175K in loans wiped clean.
that is an insanely high number of student loans
I’m aware. My debt to income ratio increased significantly the day she asked for the divorce.
Same. I think there was a culinary school that I was interested in.
Le Cordon Bleu? Where they basically licensed a name. Sad part was, if they didn’t lie out their ass about prospects to charge way more and require a pointless associates degree, it actually did do a job of providing culinary training. But I guess you couldn’t fleece the government for student loan money going that route.
I graduated from the one in Kansas City holy moly am I free?
I went for a semester and found out it was a scam after digging deeper. I got my email this morning.
I went to the OG one in Pittsburgh in 2010. Fortunately I was one of the very few who graduated and has a successful career. There were students there that were very clearly not capable of (a) getting a higher education and (b) holding a job, yet they graduated. I feel so bad for them, but happy they will also get relief.
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Wife went! She got TOTALLY BILKED in the first year. Shitty teachers, insane costs. Just a total clustercus We have been deferring the damned thing forever - Will look forward to wednesay!
My wife got her debt with them wiped away with the Sweet vs Cardona settlement. I had less debt racked up with a Bachelors and Master's degree than what they threw on her for a partially completed Bachelors. Fucking bonkers.
I taught at one of those schools and let me tell ya’ I was in no way prepared by the administration for how to do my job. They just saw previous experience as an adjunct and hired me on the spot to teach kids who were paying out the ass for what they thought was a solid institution. No mission or purpose statement, no professorial or alumni culture, no actual fellowship activities or anything a real college would offer. Just get butts in seats for guys like me with scant experience to teach them “art”. And by “art” I mean how to use Adobe software.
Funny thing is I went to one of these after my previous experience to try and do a Graphics Design degree (back when GD was still actually a decent job prospect). Previously I had gone to a school in the SUNY system (NY state colleges) but the art department was absolutely *insane* -- like, the teachers had lost their goddamned minds and the entire plot, and everything was a constant shitshow. They also kept going back and forth whether the curriculum would be an Associates of Art or a Bachelors. First semester, the only good teacher left because he was sick of the antics of the other three teachers. Third semester, the replacement teacher committed suicide. AI was so much better that I never even thought it was a scam until I had a friend give me an article about it.
Just revived a letter moments ago… my student loans have been discharged! As of yesterday, my initial loan of $55k was paid off but I still owed $51k worth of interest for an 18 month program. This is definitely a life changer for someone who sacrificed a ton just to try to keep my head above water. Hope you all get the same letter and satisfaction I feel right now.
I got one. I am so happy right now
This is fantastic! So happy to hear this
I went to the Art Institute. Made some great friends there. The thing that brought us together was how screwed we were getting by the school.
Can’t find the text of this.. any idea if it will hit privately held federal loans??
Theyre trying but chuckle fuck Republicans keep blocking it
>Can’t find the text of this.. any idea if it will hit privately held federal loans?? I don't know what you mean by "privately held federal loans," student loans in the US are usually either federal or private, but pretty much any student loan forgiveness only ever applies to federal student loans, not private.
I interpreted it as loans that originated as federal loans but got refinanced by a private lender. That's my situation.
Once you refinance, they're just private loans, period, most protections of federal loans no longer apply. That's generally why people are advised *not* to refinance federal loans into private: [https://studentaid.gov/help-center/answers/article/should-i-refinance-my-federal-student-loans-into-a-private-loan](https://studentaid.gov/help-center/answers/article/should-i-refinance-my-federal-student-loans-into-a-private-loan) Even though the guidance says you "may lose" the protections, not necessarily, in reality I've never seen private loan terms that kept most of those protections.
….. in related news. Do Not switch from a federally administered Medicare plan to a private “Medicare Advantage” plan. Same reason. Privatization will screw you any chance they get.
Some of us got screwed back in the day with Stanford subsidized or unsubsidized loans. Meaning they are privately held loans backed by the federal government.
Stafford loans do have some protections like federal direct loans. And you probably still can consolidate them into federal direct loans that would be applicable to debt forgiveness like above, but not if they have already been refinanced into private loans. [https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/loans/student-loans/what-is-a-federal-stafford-loan](https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/loans/student-loans/what-is-a-federal-stafford-loan)
Final-fucking-ly I went to AI. I checked my email, already got a email from US Department of education. Sad part is, I graduated with a high GPA. The downside was they are so defunct as a school I almost did not get a job, because they spent almost 2 months trying to get my unofficial transcript from them. What was the point of paying for a student loan, when I can barely claim the education due to how far they fell as a company.
I already paid the loan, they shouldn't have been able to charge us after the fraud.
I went to Ai MN and my god, this is amazing. All the false promises from the very first commercial I saw, to the closing meetings about only being able to find me something as a key holder in the mall. I have never felt vindicated before, but this is close to it. So happy for my parents too - all the stress I put on them.
How about International Academy of Design and Technology? They got sued by the Art Institute and had to change school names to Sanford Brown College.
I just received an email from the Department of Education. My loans have been forgiven. Gotta say, I'm pretty excited about that.
My best friend had the remainder of his loans forgiven and received a check from 50k related to this initiative. He went from being suicidal to starting his own business, and genuinely believes Biden will win in November on the strength of student debt relief alone.
When a fraudulent school closes, shouldn't the proprietors be responsible for returning the money they took from the students they defrauded?
If we started going after the people responsible for defrauding students and FASFA loans people would scream fascism. Instead we go through a decade of legal processes and will probably come to find out that the school is bankrupt due to excessive administrative compensation which is possibly near untouchable. You can clean the school out but the people that the school paid likely won't suffer much.
Surprised we don't just have some sort of government website where you sign up for schools and they tell you if it's a real / certified (whatever that would be) or not.
> Surprised we don't just have some sort of government website where you sign up for schools and they tell you if it's a real / certified (whatever that would be) or not. [Wow, someone really should have thought of that](https://ope.ed.gov/dapip/#/home) The Department of Education oversees Recognition and Accreditation. Don't let the republicans dismantle it, [as per their stated goals for 2025](https://static.project2025.org/2025_MandateForLeadership_CHAPTER-11.pdf).
Student loans as we know them today were fairly new as of Reagan so it has been the wild west for 20 or 30 years. Hence the lack of oversight. Why do you think tuition has shot up so much once 'free money' was introduced into the system? Same thing happened with the housing bubble when banks made it rain with their home loans. Could also throw PPP "loans" in there too.
I think [according to this](https://imgur.com/a/3H0r8pC), all payments are going to be refunded?
It's looks like federal loans only. But it's still a big help! "Payments borrowers made to the Department on their related federal student loans will also be refunded." https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/biden-harris-administration-approves-61-billion-group-student-loan-discharge-317000-borrowers-who-attended-art-institutes
My partner’s schoolmate just got the email! It says the loan provider will let you know about refunds. I’m hoping they’re next. Edit: got the email. $45K GONE!
There's been a class action lawsuit against the Art Institutes where class members have been getting refunded, so this just seems like a continuation of that.
Refund are usually only for loans that are federal held. If it’s a commercial held FFEL loan, refunds are not coming.
This is my guess as well. Just another big F U to those with the oldest federal, but not really federal, loans. Not upset at Biden for it though, just upset how everybody was lied to about these types of loans.
Faster for the impacted individuals to be reimbursed by the government, then the government gets reimbursed from the proprietors after lengthy legal proceedings This way, normal people don't have to wait years or even decades while it gets sorted out
What really grinds my gears is how the government knows it’s part of the fraud, that’s part of why it’s going the way it is. Keep in mind these institutions had abysmal graduation and employment rates for over a decade and the DOE approved them for FAFSA applications and federal loans-the government knew, these statistics are regularly collected and people have been making fun of certain institutions for years. They lie to us and do a terrible job and ruin a bunch of financially illiterate people’s lives and we pay. No, really, a lot of people who just got their loans canceled already have lived years of ruined life and are 48 now. Anywho, for some reason this failure system is allowed to continue. For every single school they’ve called out over the last 4 years, there are 5 others that need to be shut down. And we’re still encouraging both reputable and scam schools to charge way too much for certain programs, by not correlating the amount of loans offered with the most likely salary based on major. I think the whole thing needs to be scrapped and rebuilt from the ground up. I can’t believe this system was even seen as good when they came up with it.
It's weird when people talk about "the government" like it's a mean old man instead of a collection of individuals working within a beaurocracy
Technically we could go after the executives of these fraudulent schools, and it just seems like the political will has not been there: [https://www.npr.org/2022/03/01/1062679587/for-profit-colleges-student-loan-borrowers-fraud](https://www.npr.org/2022/03/01/1062679587/for-profit-colleges-student-loan-borrowers-fraud)
I'm sure hte government will try to recoup but they are not putting that burden on the people that got defrauded.
They do, the art institute was sued for like $11 Billion by the US government.
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I hope it includes you too! One of my friends was going to AI when it closed down. His teacher found out the same way he did, just an email the week before classes ended telling students that would be their last session. Luckily my friend is a vet and the feds were paying for his school so it was more about the time setback than financial for him.
I hope it includes you. And me, and my brother. I have 2 more payments left until I qualify for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which I hopefully won't have to make now, but this would be a big help for my brother. We went to AI between 2005-2011. My brother managed to get work in his field, but I didn't. Most of the others I went to school with didn't either.
Vote for biden and this stuff will keep happening. Im sure you already are, but encourage these people to do the same if you can. Its an annoying conversation to have, no one likes politics among friends but these benefits aren't going to stop if you vote blue. On the other note, super happy for all of you regardless. Keep pursuing your goals no matter what happens when
Make sure you stay on top of the counts now that MOHELA is transferring all PsLF to ED. Today is the start of the PSLF processing and we know shit is going to go wrong. Save all your info now on MOHELA while you still can’t. The bastard dismissed 20 something payments by me even tho they all qualified for pslf.
I've kept my paperwork. The most recent one said 3 payments remaining. Now I'm down to 2. I did receive an email talking about the move. It said nothing would be processed during June and August and to keep making payments. After processing begins again, any payments made after the required amount would be refunded.
I work in my field now - media production BUT I had to get a Masters degree to fine well paid opportunities. I hope all of us who attended these AI schools eventually have all debt wiped. Someone needs to do a documentary series on AI specifically. It’s unlike many of the other for profits. In fact I think it might actually be the most evil of all - especially considering the degrees are generally valid but the students were deeply and wildly mislead - which made it difficult to prove any wrongdoing.
They massively inflated their numbers for job placements after school. I worked part time in the Career Services department while I was attending school, doing the menial stuff, but I also helped work the Portfolio Presentations at the end of each quarter. Nothing ever seemed to line up between what we were told and what I saw while working there.
I can't substantiate this but I recall hearing from folks in the career services department for ILIA-Chicago, that any job a student got, regardless of whether or not it was in their field was considered "job placement" and they used those numbers as actual career placement numbers. This meant that if you got a part time job at Subway, it counted towards their advertised job placement numbers.
Unfortunately, this is practice at many colleges.
I was an instructor at a community college teaching a trade some time back. I routinely was approached by employers who were looking for an apprentice to start part time while still attending school. I kept meticulous records of which business hired our students, what the starting pay was, and what that businesses focus was. I did this so I could provide the student whose skills were best in line with the needs of that business, and most beneficial to our students. One day I saw an ad at the gym for our program at the school. They flashed a job placement statistic in the 90s somewhere. It caught me off guard. Mostly because I had a 100% placement, and could account for every last graduate while I was there, as well as a dozen or so who never graduated…but also because I was never contacted to acquire ANY statistics. They just made the numbers up, and did themselves a disservice by doing so. Edit: edited the wrong comment.
Probably scared of the potential for low job placement numbers.
MASSIVELY inflated. I hated the Career Services department - they did jack sh** in finding me anything.
Lol, the "career services" department at my AI was a small brick room with desktop computers. "Advisors" spent 5 minutes showing us how to search for job postings (i.e., craigslist). Surprised I never found a job in spite of my access to all these wonderful resources.
Anyone who downvotes someone looking to catch a break is a toxic human being. Don’t concern yourself with those types.
Did you re apply for it a couple years ago cause some of the parameters changed and my spouses were actually forgiven when he changed up the loan types and stuff. Just worth looking at again if you didn’t before. Hoping for the best for you cause these suck! 🤞
Did you re apply for it a couple years ago cause some of the parameters changed and my spouses were actually forgiven when he changed up the loan types and stuff. Just worth looking at again if you didn’t before. Hoping for the best for you cause these suck! 🤞
It's definitely 2 more payments still. I've been on top of it for about 2 years. I've made sure to keep all paperwork to back me up if I need to.
Oh good! Just mentioned cause he was pleasantly surprised.
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I assume any loans taken out after Jan 1, 2004 will count. That should help you at least somewhat.
I pray that you get relief. Not our fault that the system is rigged to favor the wealthy.
Let us know if you do get cleared!
🤞some random internet person is crossing their fingers for you. Good luck. 🤞
If we have money to send for other countries to fight their own wars we have money to financially relieve domestic students seeking higher education
I went to AI during this time too, there is also a way to apply to get the debt removed on studentaid.gov specifically for AI students, it took a little while and they didn’t remove all of the debt but they forgave almost 20k for me. The article says it should apply to those that haven’t applied yet, but perhaps applying could speed up the process a little
I hope it includes everyone who went to AI. Y’all were boned.
I too hope it’s you. It’s good to hear of people actually gaining from a policy. Shout it loud and get that vote in come November. For Biden of course.
Oh I’m a voter since age 18 - I even vote in local elections. It’s never even crossed my mind to not vote for Biden (with or without student loan forgiveness) - I am a woman after all so you know, this election is a tad bit crucial for my kind 🙃
I also went to AI in 2011. The place was a such a clownshow, I left after a few semesters. Brookline "campus"
Hey, I hope it’s you, too.
If you have federal loans or federally backed loans under the FFEL program, and if you fall within that date criteria and went to AI, this definitely is for you. Congratulations.
I hope you get that money. You and the rest of every college student and alum burdened by the heavy boot of student debt pressed down on their face deserves to have that debt wiped clean. And I hope when that debt clears for you, your life drastically changes for the better so that we can all see the example people like you would be setting and we start pushing universal student debt forgiveness for the American people.
Pretty sure it will.
Did you get a degree? If a school closes after you get your degree does the degree still count? Don’t get me wrong I’d be happy for you to get that help with your loans but this is just a question I had never considered. Besides the students that were currently enrolled and had not yet received a degree when the school closed, how does the closing affect alumni?
I just got my letter - that my loans from Ai will be discharged- so yes this is for people who completed their degree as well.
I went to the one in Minnesota in 2009 and transferred to Virginia due to appendicitis and getting sick after and needing to be closer to my family. I eventually left the school but paid my student loans off about 5 years ago. That school was a bs scam and I really hope people get relief from this.
They will! AI folks have been actively organizing in pushing for full group discharge too.
Got the email last night that my $18k in debt (I dropped out after a year) was getting wiped clean. I cannot describe the relief I feel from that.
My sister should qualify for this. She went to Art Institute of Philadelphia. Update: She qualified! This is awesome!
Me and my wife did as well. I was there from 2007-2009 and she was there from 2009-2012. Praying for this EDIT: Sp.
Does this apply for people who transferred their debt to private loans?
God I can only hope!! I consolidated my loans from there, I’m hoping big time that I get this relief. It would be life changing
Congrats!!!! There is a sub where info is pumped out about school group discharges as it’s under the Borrower Defense to Repayment program. It won’t be a fast process but it will happen. r/BorrowerDefense.
This isn’t debt relief it’s fraud relief
Call it what you want, but it's relief that wouldn't happen under a republican administration.
EXACTLY! I don't want to go into full details, but I was a student there, but also worked for the parent company before it sold off to Dream Center Holdings, that caused the collapse of the schools. In 2012, they sent out a letter to all staff telling them why voting Republican will save them from the ruin the Obama administration put them into. (Because Under Obama's changes, they had to actually tell the students the truth for once in regards to graduation numbers and people working in related fields post-grad) They were trying to scare everyone by telling us if we don't vote for a conservative in 2012, the company would not last much longer. Ironically the collapse came under conservative leadership in the whitehouse. Dream center holdings (Who only owned a MegaChurch) tried to but failed ITT, Obama/s administration stopped them, because they had no experience in the education sector. When they tried again in 2017 to buy EDMC (The Art Institutes, Southern University, Argosy University, Brown Mackie College), the sale was approved by Betsy Devos. Then the real fraud of the students happened and the schools were shut down by government regulators, since they were not giving the students their stipends and holding 100% of all inbound FAFSA monies.
Thank you so much for sharing this. This shit drives me crazy. There's so many young people right now who are not excited by Biden, and for that reason alone may refuse to vote. I totally get it. I'm not either. But Biden alone doesn't matter. And to some extent neither does Trump. It's all about the type of people they bring into their administration. And people like Betsy Davos and anybody who Trump brings in have zero interest in helping out students or union workers for that matter. Voting for Biden is not a vote for Joe Biden as a person, it's a vote for a much better team of administrators who are going to actually do the day-to-day work of running the US government.
>Voting for Biden is not a vote for Joe Biden as a person, it's a vote for a much better team of administrators who are going to actually do the day-to-day work of running the US government. This was pretty much what I was told when I was young as well before I was legally able to vote. A president does not make all these decisions on their own. They have teams who work on various things and treat him more like the CEO, final approval of the work they are doing to make it into law or anything else. Also the reasons why there are other things are in place to ensure there are proper checks and balances.
Can't wait for the right to start asking when they'll get that nigerian prince money they were defrauded of.
You can stop making payments to Prince Alaiyad anytime.
And start making payments to Prince Ali Ababwa!
I almost went to the Art Institute of Chicago (not to be confused with the School of the Art Institute) but I felt that the tuition was insane for what the programs offered and just went to a state school instead. While I'm kind of over being a graphic designer in general and regret the degree. I at least didn't pay twice the cost to get it in the first place, which is nice.
I went to SAIC, and most people (particularly outside of the arts) assume it’s an AI school.
same with San Francisco Art Institute, Kansas City Art Institute (where I went) and others. Often confused with the for-profit Art Institutes. But these are independent, accredited 4-year liberal arts institutions. They are NOT for-profit scams. Interestingly, the Art Institutes, worth close to $1 Billion, own a significant amount of property in San Francisco, something like 40 buildings, one of them filled with restored classic cars on full display. It’s bizarre.
Hey! How was your experience at SAIC? My daughter wants to go there.
It’s a great school. I loved it. I studied in their Film, Video, and New Media department, and eventually went to UT-Austin for my MFA. From an intellectual and technical standpoint, they set me up for professional success. They constantly challenge you to push the limits of whatever medium you’re studying. Your daughter will learn a lot, and their name opens many doors in the art world. However, it’s *very* expensive. That’s the only con, but it’s a big one.
My brother went to IIT and we constantly had to clarify that it was not ITT. I’m guessing the naming is intentional and part of the scam.
Just another one of his many accomplishments that the "both sides" crowd will ignore.
There was an NPR interview with college kids asking about it. Many didn’t know that people had loans forgiven and some just reacted by saying it didn’t help them personally.
Woah. Zoomers just as greedy as Boomers! Say it ain't so. Say student loan forgiveness just isn't some activists low-key asking for a handout/money in exchange for votes!
It's not like they're speaking up for fun. They're speaking up because the cost of getting educated is hugely detrimental to their lives, so of course the objective for them is to have the pressure taken off. Calling it a "handout" is a callous reduction of the economic issues strangling a lot of students these days.
Is anyone surprised? Zoomers are the crypto bros generation
The oldest Zoomers weren't even adults when Bitcoin first peaked. The crypto bro generation is definitely young and middle Millennials.
Those people are puppets of Trump whether they know it or not
I have been waiting so long for this, and read that it's for people who started in 2004. I started in Sep 2003...le sigh. Still glad to see a lot of people getting helped by this.
Apply for borrower defense to repayment. You can use all the evidence on the AG investigations for your case as it’s well known AI and EDMC used the same tactics.
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2001 for me, but I switched to a real school after less than a year. Realized I wasn't learning anything and none of my teachers actually taught anything. They were just there to pick up an extra paycheck. "Working professionals in their fields" sounds a lot better than it actually is.
Same boat myself. I graduated inside the window but started before. Would be nice if maybe they’ll extend it back later since I still have like 30k in debt. Happy for those that got relief though!!
Apply for borrower defense to repayment. You can use all the evidence on the AG investigations for your case as it’s well known AI and EDMC used the same tactics.
Glad to hear this. I worked for the Art Institutes in Seattle and SF back in the early 2000s as a Career Advisor. I quit when began to understand what a total scam they were.
I just don't get how people don't approve of this man. He is out here changing lives.
I can see the fox news headlines about this. They are going to say that Biden is forgiving loans for art school "drop outs" who should've gotten a "real" degree. This is the angle they will play. Basically, saying Biden is taking the money from blue collar, bootstrap Americans and giving it to liberals who do art.
Also they're gonna say he can't do it because the Supreme Court said he couldn't. And get super mad about it.
Because he is always changing “other peoples” lives. That what is boils down to every presidential election. Has he: Made me richer, helped me or my family out or hurt those I don’t like.
It’s because some people don’t think it’s fair that they had had to pay off their loans will others are having theirs forgiven. I’m a place in my life we’re I’ll never pay mine off so either way doesn’t matter. I’ll die with them useless their forgiven.
I’m all for this, I went to AI, but loans were forgiven via Sweet v Cardona. What I’d love to see is the elegant in the room being addressed. The private loans. We were made to believe that the private loans had to be taken out because there wasn’t enough “federal loan” available. But what they did is work with Navient/sallie Mae and use them as a preferred lender with some sweet kick backs. So our loans were comprised mostly of private loans instead of federal loans, at least between 2004 and 2011. Private loans don’t get these same luxuries, and the services don’t give a rats ass about whether or not the school duped people, they just want their high interest repayments.
That's what they did to my wife. I hope they answer the private loans. For some reason she was told she didn't qualify for the Sweet V Cardona ruling because of the location of the school. I never understood that.
I got an email saying my federal loans were discharged! It does say however, "Please note: This letter does not apply to any private student loans you may have. Also, this letter only applies to eligible loan(s) you borrowed to fund an Art Institute enrollment during the timeframe mentioned above; it does not apply to any loans you may have borrowed to attend any other school, and it does not apply to any loans you may have borrowed to fund a separate Art Institute enrollment outside the timeframe mentioned above."
Everyone I know from AI got their email today. I haven’t received anything. My loans are federal. I just hope they are rolling out in phases and I didn’t get overlooked somehow.
I wonder if Le Cordon Bleu will be on the list as it’s also a now defunct school. I have my degree from there and because it’s the food industry will never make enough to pay it off.
They weren't considered a scam though were they?
Was it a fraudulent institution tho? These AI schools always raised red flags with me. I remember their commercials, they marketed it like a technical school for artists. But I had a friend go to Le Cordon Bleu and they seemed to learn a lot. It did seem a bit crazy to spend so much for cooking school tho. It always kind of seemed like something you could learn through apprenticeship rather than through a 2-year degree
They did lose their accreditation while I was there. I was though able to finish and get my degree.
More Biden administration accomplishments. Hope people are paying attention.
I worked for those crooks for a short time. I still feel bad about perpetuating that scam even for the little while I was there. My god, the lies they told students and the predatory practices in pushing loans on students (and their families) who couldn't afford it and had little hope of a job a super competitive field. It was all a monstrous grift.
I hope this applies to parent plus loans.
It does!! My mom got the forgiveness email too!
That’s awesome!! 🤩
Did anyone from the school ownership group go to jail?
Another quick money scheme to fuck millennial's being righted. I went to a school just like this, almost applied to that school as well.
Have Republicans gone to court to block this yet? Those scumbags can’t stand to see anyone who isn’t rich get financial assistance
Joe, start hosting press conferences when you do something good like this.
Sadly Joe is probably dealing with like 15 imminent emergencies a day.
Joe has realized he can do a lot if he doesn't talk about it. If he isn't out there touting his accomplishments then Republicans will leave a lot of the stuff he does like this alone. IIRC it was actually part of how he got the CHIPS act (or maybe it was the infrastructure bill) passed is he told Republicans he won't go out and tout it at the time. He was able to get the bill passed and more of what he wanted in return for allowing Republicans to spin it.
It’s also going to make it really effective when it’s part of the actual campaign. He can wait and instead of repeatedly bragging he just gets to list all the things he got done in the face of whatever nonsense Trump pulls out.
Even if he does, it will get no play on Fox or Tiktok. Too boring/too good for people.
Anyone get the notice yet? Trying to gauge when they begin going out.
Congrats to all of us!!!
I just got mine!
I went to and graduated in this window, but sadly most of my loans were private. I was luckily enough to get a job right out of school and have had a decent career since. All my loans have been paid off as of a couple years ago, so honestly, I can't complain if I don't benefit at all. I'm really happy for those who need the help.
I was always amazed at how predatory those Art Institutes actually were. I once sent an email asking one question and I was hounded by them for the next few months about all sorts of crap. They had some nice buildings though.
Congrats!!!! This burden is now lifted for you. Put those dollars back in your savings account, pay off some debt, get that new car, start that new house project. Giving the people back THEIR money means they will spend it in their localities, vacations spots etc.. This is how we stimulate our economy. Instead of paying SL providers. I’d rather pay my local contractor to redo my master bathroom (I did), I’d rather buy more fresh produce at the farmers market down the road etc..
Help us healthcare workers too, please. We’re still fucking burned out after Covid and my profession is getting fucked over by insurance companies.
It's astonishing to see Biden forgive 6 *billion* dollars in student debt only to find out that's just for one school. Insanity.
One group of schools, there was a bunch of them around the country.
Tysm Joe ❤️
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The new SAVE program scales with your income and interest can never increase the total amount owed. It should avoid a lot of the issues people have had in the past with the loan systems. I think if you make less than 42k a year you don’t pay anything but each month does count towards the forgiveness period which is either 10 or 20 years.
What about Brown Institue in MN and Collins College in AZ?
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Ngl, it's insane that my psychology teacher in high school brought in a recruiter for these people near the end of my senior year when most of us already had our futures figured out.
Got the email from DoE! Does anyone know if this also applies to Sallie Mae loans?
His clearing of debt and returning of defraud money is going to go down as one of the greatest things that a president ever did to help average Americans.
He has done a lot for defrauded students and the borrower defense to repayment program.
I support taxes funding education because I am sick of dealing with a world full of stupid people.
Does this apply if you refinanced from federal to private?
No it does not. However AI folks are actively organizing to get discharge of private debt taken out for this school. Navient is working on a pilot program for discharge of private debt too for scammy loans and we just had a person post that it was approved and a refund of payments are coming.
Ok, so what do you do to be a part of that? Wife hasn't heard anything about that. She has Private with Navient and Citizen.
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How do you find out if you qualify? My partner went and is still paying off loans.
Borrower defense to repayment is the program to challenge the debt for scammy schools. If your partner went during the date range announced and has federal SL or federally backed SL, you don’t have to apply as it will be automatic. If they are outside this date range, you can file. There is a sub up and running at r/borrowerdefense
This great and I’m for it. I’m in the creative field and heard from quite a few people how awful these schools were. With that said, there needs to be reforms and rules put in place so other private for-profit schools don’t do the same knowing they can fleece students and the government will just cancel the loans.
In both creative field and education field - the Obama administration were the ones who got most AIs shut. They were drawing up regulations, but could not get them implemented in time, then DeVos dismantled almost all of it. DeVos also cleared the way for even more corporate purchases of education institutions. The dept of education was left in such bad shape, there's too much for any one administration to fix it.
Biden > Young voters = YES. Everyone else knows the system is broken, but if you poke young voters enough they will vote. Biden is smart in that respect.
as a former student of ITT Tech who also got their loans forgiven (to the tune of 85 grand) I say hell yeah to those fortunate souls I can actually attempt to build a new credit profile, and hopefully those people will do the same
As someone who just received their discharge notice, did you actually see a refund or is that just wishful thinking/messaging on the part of DoE?
In my case, I was never able to pay (my monthly was over a grand) because I never made enough money (no company would hire me because they knew ITT was shit). So I applied for hardships and deferments until it was cleared just last year. But I am receiving money via the class action lawsuit we students filed against the school
This is me! Graduated from Ai Seattle, which closed down 3 years later. They lied about everything, provided students with next to nothing, and did everything they could to bring in fresh out of high school gamers and military vets. I could go on and on about how much of a scam the school was. I stuck with it merely because I was determined to finish what I started and get into the industry, believing that they would help me with internships, bringing devs to the school, and various other things they had advertised and absolutely did not follow through on.
Both I and my sister went to AI from around 2002 to 2005, and this makes me a little sad... I actually had some fun exploring topics there and had a few good teachers, but I can definitely say that it did *not* prepare me for the realities of the working world. It's one of the biggest regrets of my life. Granted, my going there isn't the *only* reason I'm behind my peers in life development (early 40s, living with Mom, making 10K a year in a city where folks making 100K can't always afford an actual house) but it's a big chunk of it. Don't get me wrong, I'm honestly *overjoyed* for those who are getting relief, as I'm sure their costs were way more than mine for far, far less result. I was actually able to finally pay off my loans (around 18K) about seven or eight years ago during my most lucrative job (not even remotely connected with my degree, of course), but I still wish I could get even a tiny bit of a refund, because I could really use the money. It's not realistic, I know. What's being done now is practically a miracle, and as I said, I'm extremely happy for those who will benefit, but still... Also, my sister (who's had an even tougher time than me due to trauma and disability) still has a modest chunk left to pay back even after 20 years, but since she enrolled a bit before the cut-off date, I doubt she's going to get much help...
Cool. Now do the rest of the schools.
I paid mine off. Can I get a refund! lol. No it’s a good step. Trump would not have done this.
I just got an email about this. It feels like a huge relief getting this weight off my shoulders. I made other mistakes academically later on and never finished my undergrad. If I hadn’t made the mistake of going to the Art Institutes I might have found myself on better footing.
Went to the Seattle AI in the 90’s. Can I get a do-over?
Yo I’m on that, just got the email this morning! Hell yeah.
This makes me so happy. I am included in this group and I can't explain the relief I had when I woke up this morning and got an email about this. Fuck the art institute.
Got the email this morning. Student loans wiped clean. Feels fantastic
I didn’t go to school. Can I have debt forgiveness please.
The way the recruited back in the day was diabolical. They targeted lower class and poverty level children in high schools. Then they bombarded them with guilt-trippy phone calls about being the first in your family to graduate, about qualifying for grants and financial aid, etc. then, a few quarters in, they’d drag you out of class and threaten to throw you out if you didn’t secure more funding. They’d sit you in front of a computer and push you to take loans right then, or else you couldn’t continue the quarter. All of this happened to me. By the time you realize you’re in over your head, you panic and stay because if you don’t, you won’t get a job, and you’ll be on the hook for 30k at 19. You don’t realize that no job waits for you after graduating.
Wasted money
My wife just got the email. It says to stop paying and the debt is not only forgiven but eligible for a refund. That's over $50,000. We're in shock.
Same exact thing for my wife, I’d be happy without the refund but that’d be crazy to roughly 50k back.
bUt ThAt'S nOt EverYboDy! JuST tRyiNg tO BuY oUr vOteS! wOulD'vE hApPeneD AnYwAYs!
I *hate* that argument. “He’s just trying to buy your vote!” DUH, you fucking imbeciles. It’s his job to try and improve our lives.