If you attended Kaplan University, Kaplan College, or Kaplan Career Institute, then I’ve got some excellent news – your Kaplan University student loans are completely eligible to be discharged, meaning that you can have them eliminated without having to spend a single penny!
Kaplan University Student Loans forgiveness for recent students of Kaplan University is easily available by the Closed School Loan Discharge program or the Borrower’s Defense To Repayment program (BDAR).
I’m going to give you plenty of information regarding each of these supreme forgiveness programs, including how to apply for them, who qualifies for the benefits, and how to build your Borrower’s Defense claim to improve your odds of getting it approved.
Are you a past student of Kaplan University attempting loan forgiveness? Then you’ve come to the right place. These are real US government programs intended to assist previous students of Kaplan University in getting loan forgiveness.
But First, Consider An Expert’s Opinion
The fastest and affordable way to get rid of your debt is to pay a specialist to evaluate your financial situation and devise a plan for wiping it out as quickly as possible.
Why? Because student loans are difficult for a reason, and the lenders and servicing companies usually won’t give you the proper help on the best tactics to get rid of your loans.
Paying a specialist for their guidance saves you time and money, and it typically just requires a few hundred dollars to get expert assistance.
But there’s only one company that I believe to suggest to my readers, and that’s the Student Loan Relief Helpline.
That’s because it’s staffed by real experts who can evaluate your situation in minutes, then tell you specifically what you have to do to eliminate your debt quickly and affordable.
To get advice with your Kaplan University Student Loans, call the Student Loan Resolved now at 1-800-820-8128.
Table of contents
The Kaplan University Lawsuit
One of the principal reasons that Kaplan University Student Loans are eligible for the Borrower’s Defense program is that the school has been involved in defrauding the US Government to a huge $4 billion, which is essentially a record when it comes to higher education scams.
The school was doing so many forbidden things and running such fraudulent business methods that the US Government investigation, lawsuit, and punitive actions essentially forced it into shutting down, which isn’t shocking if you think just how bad they were behaving.
In fact, within the class action lawsuit against Kaplan University, we found out that they were involved in changing grades, enrolling unqualified students, and even counterfeiting legal documents so that their substandard plans would get accreditation.
That’s some serious stuff and the idea why essentially anyone who attended any of their schools should have no problem in receiving their loans fully discharged via Borrower’s Defense to Repayment.
Two Ways to Discharge Kaplan University Student Loans
If you’re a past student of Kaplan University trying student loan forgiveness, then there are two different programs available to you, the Closed School Loan Discharge program and the Borrower’s Defense To Repayment.
You can’t apply to both of these programs, so what you need to do is analyze how both of them work, consider your particular condition and experience with Kaplan, then choose which one will work best for you.
The key thing to reflect here is how good a possibility you have at getting your loans discharged and how fast that process can be performed, so you can finish making those useless monthly payments via whatever you owe the defunct Kaplan College.
To assist you in figuring out which program will work best, let’s look at them in particular.
Discharging Kaplan University Student Loans via Borrower’s Defense Against Repayment
The Borrower’s Defense to Repayment Program (BDAR) was formed to assist people in getting rid of student loans that shouldn’t be in the first place.
The idea it works is that it gives an avenue for you to get your loans legally discharged if you can show that they were only taken out because the student loan lender, school, or servicer did something fraudulent that assured you it was a great thought to borrow the money for their program in the first place.
What you have to do to get a BDAR discharge approved is made a crystal clear case saying that you would never have imagined borrowing money for Kaplan’s higher education programs was a good idea had you known the certainty about their condition.
Because Kaplan University has been shown to have violated the law in so many different ways, particularly by things like fake advertising, making fraudulent claims, and lying about the value of their programs, it’ll be comparatively easy for you to prove that you earn loan forgiveness benefits.
If you think it seems too good to be true, then fear not, because as you read this, another former Kaplan student is getting their BDAR requests approved and having their Kaplan University Student Loans completely forgiven.
This is NOT a Student Loan Forgiveness Scam, as the Borrower’s Defense program was built by the US Government and is managed by the Department of Education.
If your BDAR application is filled out accurately and correctly processed, then not only will you get debt forgiveness, but you might also qualify for a refund on whatever money you’ve already paid out.
That’s why how you write your Borrower’s Defense application is so valuable. Let’s look at how that process.
How to Write Your Borrower’s Defense Claim
In your Borrower’s Defense Application, it’s essential that you emphasize the fact that Kaplan University defrauded the US government out of $4 billion and that part of that defrauding process was guided against you, the person who was sold a fake bill of goods, declared stuff that never got delivered.
You must actually articulate the case that you would never have taken out a student loan to attend Kaplan University if they hadn’t misled the condition of their educational programs. You must be explicit about what things they lied to you about to assure you to take out the loan (things like job placement rates, potential salaries for graduates, total costs, or whatever you were assured).
Since the school was exposed guilty of wrongdoing, it will be simple for you to show that they employed fraudulent advertising to mislead you, but remember, you have to have experienced something here, or you could be setting yourself in legal danger. So do not lie on your BDAR application!
When you apply for discharge, be sure that you highlight particular aspects of what Kaplan College enrollment advertisements, advisors, or other official reports told you to tempt you to take out the student loan.
Plus, remember what happened after you enrolled. Did the school appear to worry about your academic accomplishments, or were they only interested in the Kaplan University Student Loans money?
Be very particular when writing this stuff up because it’s not enough to point out that the school violated the law and was deservingly punished. Instead, you need to prove that they targeted you individually.
To assist you in brainstorming plans for things you could add to your application, let’s take a look at what specifically Kaplan University was doing that got them into the problem in the first place.
If any of these things happened to you, then remember that your loan should be forgiven, and more importantly, that you can use these as the causes for why your loan should be discharged on your BDAR application.
What Fraudulent Activity has Kaplan University Been Accused Of?
Kaplan University has been involved in changing grades, enrolling unqualified students, and counterfeiting legal documents related to the school’s accreditation conditions.
You will need to associate your Borrower’s Defense claim to the school’s legal problems, showing that the school did several of the things mentioned in the lawsuit against you individually and that it was these illegal actions that convinced you to accept to take out a loan for their higher education program.
If you can’t be particular and describe this clearly, then your application will be denied, and you’ll have to stay paying off that Kaplan debt.
If you do a great job and make it obvious that Kaplan defrauded you, then your loans will be discharged, and you’ll be able to step away from this without paying Kaplan another penny.
Kaplan University’s Illegal Marketing Activities
In the lawsuit toward Kaplan University, some serious complaints were made, and the school was judged to have been guilty of these illegal marketing actions:
- Misrepresenting their academic programs to make them seem better than they were (by doing things like inflating graduation rates, underestimating total program costs, shortening the time required to complete the application, etc.)
- Adjusting the grades of those students so that they would “pass” their programs and remain in the program, allowing Kaplan to maintain collecting student loan benefits (and essentially Federal student loan benefits, which is why the school was proved to have defrauded the US Government and American Taxpayer)
- Enrolling students who they knew weren’t qualified for the programs, due to they didn’t have the proper educational background, supposedly wasn’t going to be able to fulfill program requirements, or something else, to get their student loan money
However, seemingly the worst thing that Kaplan did was counterfeiting legal documents so that their substandard academic programs would be approved, which flies in the face of the whole accreditation process, and makes Kaplan one of the worst actors in a terrible industry (for-profit schools).
Did Kaplan lie to you about the possibilities or value of their higher education programs? Did they concerned about your academic performance, or were they only holding you around to get your Federal student loan dollars?
Do you think that they enrolled you even though you weren’t qualified? Did they convert your grades to keep you enrolled, even though you should have been cut for bad performance?
If any of this happened to you, you must apply to the Borrower’s Defense Against Repayment program due to you’re entitled to claim student loan forgiveness since your loans were formed based on fraud and lies.
Where Can I File My Borrower’s Defense Claim?
You can look at the official US government application for the Borrower’s Defense program here. If you want to read through the application before you begin the wizard, scroll down and click the “View Form” button.
A quick word of warning to assist keep you secure: do not file your Borrower’s Defense claim anywhere else!
You must file it at the official US government website dedicated to the program. If you Google around, you’ll apparently find all kinds of people claiming that they can take your Borrower’s Defense applications for you, then provide them to the US Government, but this is not a good approach.
Not only do you not need anyone else’s assistant with Borrower’s Defense, but you also shouldn’t be willing to give out all the features needed to perform the application to anyone other than an official US Government entity or possibly an attorney.
If you’re having difficulty filling out the application, ask about your problems in the comments section below, and I’ll give you information on how to take care of various parts of the process.
Checking The Status of My Application
Sadly, Borrower’s Defense claims aren’t being processed fast due to the Department of Education has been deluged with them over the past couple of years, but also including the DOE is outright hostile to the benefit itself.
Betsy DeVos, our Education Secretary, has been trying to drop the Borrower’s Defense program completely ever after she was selected by President Donald Trump, who also appears to be against BDAR’s existence.
This directs me to my next essential point: if you’re eligible for a BDAR discharge, you need to fill out the application instantly! Because if DeVos successfully eliminates it by defunding it or modifying the law, then your hope for receiving the discharge will be to have your application submitted BEFORE it’s stripped.
There’s a very valid possibility that anyone who applies for BDAR while the program is yet in being will be grandfathered in and allowed to get loan forgiveness, even if the program gets cut.
Receiving Forgiveness via the Closed School Loan Discharge Program
You may have an extra path to forgiveness via the easy fact that Kaplan is no longer operational if you don’t qualify for a Borrower’s Defense Discharge.
The closing of Kaplan College, Kaplan University, and Kaplan Career Institute allows former students to use the Closed School Loan Discharge program to get loan forgiveness under specific conditions.
The Closed School program can assist anyone who was studying at Kaplan University at the time it shut. Or who left the school before the time it shut, but within 120 days of the closure.
And this program is the better choice for getting forgiveness benefits because even though it’s difficult to qualify for them, it’s much easier actually to get them.
While BDAR approvals take over a year to make, people submitting Closed School Applications are hearing back much faster.
Eligibility Requirements for Closed School Discharges
You must have either been you need to have dropped the school no more than 120 days before its closing or still studying at Kaplan at the time it closed to qualify for a Closed School program discharge.
There are two other requirements you need to meet as well:
- You did not finish all your coursework at Kaplan University but failed to get your diploma before the school’s closing.
- You did not send your Kaplan University Student Loans to another school that you’re currently attending.
If you meet these conditions, there’s a perfect chance that you’ll be able to obtain student loan forgiveness for your Kaplan University Student Loans.
Private Student Loan Consolidation
Private student loan consolidation is available through various banks to combine all your student loans into one new loan. Private student loan consolidation requires a good credit score and will often have better rates than the federal student loan.
How Do I Apply for Kaplan University Student Loans?
Download the official application, fill it out, and submit it to your loan servicer. Then, the company gets your monthly loan payment to apply for the Kaplan University Student Loans Discharge program.
Each service has a somewhat different method of processing these applications, so once you’ve submitted your paperwork, you have to listen to them and follow their guidance to get the discharge approved.
Which Program is Better? Borrower’s Defense or Closed School Discharges?
They’re both excellent programs in that they all can wipe out your student loans and compensate you for past student loan payments.
The main difference between Closed School Discharges and BDAR is that applications for the Borrower’s Defense program take quite a bit of time to process, with numerous people reaching waiting over a year even to hear back from the Department of Education.
So, considering that you qualify for both programs, I would prefer the Closed School program only because it provides a faster resolution. Still, the decision is ultimately up to you. Read through the features of each program, think about which one will work for you, then fill out your application.
Will I Owe Taxes on Forgiven Debt?
Yes, sadly, you will end up owing taxes on the number of forgiven student loan debt. This is due to IRS considers the forgiven debt to be taxable income, meaning that you have to declare it as income on your annual IRS tax return.
How is that works?
If you have $100,000 forgiven, the IRS would consider you to have made an extra $100,000 for the year that your debt was forgiven. At an income tax rate of 30%, you’d need to pay the IRS $30,000.
But the saddest part about it is that the IRS typically wants you to meet them in a single, lump-sum payment all at once, unlike student loans which are broken up and stretched out over a period of years.
Anyone fighting with student loan debt isn’t going to have that kind of money lying around, which is why I believe we all must be aware of the potential for what I call a “student loan forgiveness apocalypse” coming on the horizon.
If you’re having any difficulties with the IRS or with taxes, then you have to visit Forget Tax Debt, where I’ll walk you through things like applying to the IRS Fresh Start Program, qualifying for IRS Tax Debt Forgiveness, negotiating for an IRS Tax Debt Settlement, or simply Filing & Paying IRS Back Taxes.
Where Else Can I Ask Questions?
I would be pleased to clarify any questions you might have about either of these programs or student loan forgiveness in general. So feel free to leave your question in the comments section below, and I’ll get you an answer as quickly as possible.