INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill today announced that more than 2,000 Indiana residents who attended schools operated by Corinthian Colleges, Inc., are eligible for cancellation of federal student loans used to pay tuition.
Indiana residents who attended Everest Institute, Everest College, Everest University, Heald College and Wyotech are eligible. If granted cancellation, those students would not have to make any more payments. Any payments already made would be refunded.
Indiana and 45 other states, in addition to Washington D.C., are sending a letter to students detailing the relief available. The letter will include a short application that must be filled out and submitted to the U.S. Department of Education. A total of 2,414 Indiana residents are eligible for relief.
Corinthian Colleges is a for-profit organization that abruptly halted operations in 2015, transferring some of its campuses to a non-profit organization called Zenith Education group. Prior to this transfer, the U.S. Department of Education discovered widespread misinterpretations about post-graduation employment rates at the aforementioned institutions across the nation between 2010 and 2014.
Lists of the affected campuses, programs and dates of enrollment are available at these two links: https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/sites/default/files/ev-wy-findings.pdf and https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/sites/default/files/heald-findings.pdf
Students who first enrolled in the identified campuses and programs during the specified time periods are eligible for streamlined discharge of their federal student loans.
While the outreach efforts are centered around students who fall within the U.S. Department of Education’s findings of fraud discussed above, any student who attended Corinthian Colleges and believes they were lied to about job prospects, transferability of credits or other issues is encouraged to apply to have their federal student loans cancelled. Students who wish to do so should use the Department of Education’s universal discharge application. More information is available here.
Due to the volume of applicants, it may take the U.S. Department of Education longer than usual to process applications. Because of this potential delay, those who apply should continue making payments on the affected loans until they receive confirmation from the U.S. Department of Education — or from one’s loan servicer — that the federal loans are in forbearance while the application is pending or that the loans have been cancelled.
Students can call the U.S. Department of Education hotline at 1-855-279-6207 or email questions about discharge of their federal student loans to FSAOperations@ed.gov.
