Should I Apply for Student Loan Forgiveness?

Remember when you were first trying to figure out life after high school? People were expecting you to make all these life-altering decisions—like what college to go to, what major to choose, and what dream job to chase after. Somewhere along the way, you were probably sold the idea of taking out student loans.

But now, your college days are behind you, and you’re staring at a mountain of student loan debt, wondering if you should apply for student loan forgiveness.

Here’s the answer: While it is possible to get student loans canceled in a few very specific situations, you shouldn’t bank on it. Student loan forgiveness isn’t nearly as reliable as it may seem.

You don’t want to carry around the burden of student loans, but you need a plan that actually works—not one that will leave you more disappointed in the end. So here’s everything you need to know about student loan forgiveness.

• What Is Student Loan Forgiveness?
• How Does Student Loan Forgiveness Work and Who Qualifies?
• Public Service Loan Forgiveness
• Teacher Loan Forgiveness
• Total and Permanent Disability Discharge
• Borrower Defense to Loan Repayment
• Parent PLUS Loan Forgiveness
• Closed School Discharge
• Income Share Agreements
• Should I Apply for Student Loan Forgiveness?
• The Alternative to Student Loan Forgiveness

Student loan forgiveness first came on the scene in 2007 to help graduates with their student loan debt.¹ With rare exceptions, student loan forgiveness is only available through federal programs with very specific requirements—like making a certain number of payments or working for an approved employer.

And while President Joe Biden tried introducing a new student loan forgiveness plan in 2022 to cancel a portion of federal student loan debt for all borrowers, the U.S. Supreme Court shut it down.²

So these days, when people want to know about applying for student loan forgiveness, they’re usually talking about those federal programs with strict requirements.

Not all student loan forgiveness programs are created equal. Each has its own set of rules and separate application process. (If it already sounds complicated, that’s because it is.) And it doesn’t help that these programs are constantly being tweaked.

But let’s walk through the most common student loan forgiveness programs and their current requirements. Keep in mind, these are only for federal student loans—private student loan forgiveness is a whole other beast.

When someone brings up student loan forgiveness, they’re usually talking about Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF). You might hear people say, “All you have to do is work for a nonprofit for 10 years and your student loans are taken care of.” But unfortunately, it’s not quite that simple.

In order to qualify for public service loan forgiveness, you must:³

• Have Direct Loans
• Work full time for a qualifying employer, like the government or a 501(c)(3) nonprofit
• Have an income-driven repayment plan 
• Make 120 monthly payments
• Never miss a payment for 10 years

A lot of people apply for PSLF, and for years, the odds of forgiveness were almost nonexistent—between September 2020 and June 2023, less than 1% of applications were approved.⁴ Things have improved under new rules, but not by much. From June 2024 through July 2025, nearly 3 million people applied, and only about 13% have actually had their loans forgiven so far.⁵ That means nearly 9 out of 10 borrowers who apply are still paying on their loans.

If you’re a teacher, you might be able to ditch up to $17,500 of your federal student loans. But to apply for teacher loan forgiveness, you must first:⁶

• Have no outstanding balance on Direct Loans or Federal Family Education Loans before October 1, 1998 (or when you first borrowed after that date).
• Work full time as a highly qualified teacher for five academic years in a row
• Have taken out the loan before the end of your five teaching years
• Teach low-income students at an educational service agency or at the elementary, middle or high school level

Even after you’ve checked all the right boxes, your application may not get approved. And you should know that you can only get up to $17,500 forgiven if you’re a math, science or special education teacher—any other teachers can only get up to $5,000 forgiven.⁷ 

If you have a disability that leaves you totally or permanently disabled, your federal student loans or your TEACH Grant service obligation could be discharged.

To qualify for total and permanent disability (TPD) discharge, you have to prove your disability status through either the Veterans Affairs office, the Social Security Administration office, or your physician.

But you should know that if your loans do get discharged, you’ll be monitored for the next three years to make sure you actually have a disability. And if your condition changes at all during those three years, you may have to start paying on your loans again.

If your school misled you or violated certain state laws, you might be able to have some or all of your student loans discharged through a program called borrower defense. You only qualify for this if your school committed fraud related directly to your federal student loan—like claiming more graduates got jobs straight out of their program than actually did.

Borrower defense usually happens automatically for those who were affected on a large scale. But if you feel like you have an individual case for borrower defense and want to apply on your own, you’ll have to wade through a lot of legal jargon and documentation. While it’s possible that you could have your loans discharged, proving that your school committed fraud isn’t easy.

A Parent PLUS Loan is a federal loan parents can take out to help cover their child’s college costs. And yes—these loans can be forgiven—but the process is long and complicated.

The only repayment plan Parent PLUS borrowers can use is called Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR). But to even get on that plan, you first have to combine your loans into a Direct Consolidation Loan. After that, you’ll make payments based on your income for 25 years—updating your income every year—in hopes the rest of the balance gets forgiven.

And if you’re working toward PSLF, Parent PLUS Loans can qualify—but only after you consolidate and get on the ICR plan first. Just remember that approval rates have historically been very low.

If you lost money because your school closed before you could get a degree, you may qualify for closed school discharge if you meet one of these conditions:⁸

• You were enrolled when your school closed
• You were on an approved leave of absence when your school closed
• Your school closed within 180 days after you withdrew

Like with borrower defense to repayment, you usually don’t have to do anything to get this kind of cancellation. But if the U.S. Department of Education doesn’t automatically send you a notice of your loans being discharged, you may need to send in your own application.

You might see these advertised as an affordable, “smarter” alternative to student loans—but let’s be real: Debt is debt, no matter what you call it. With an Income Share Agreement (ISA), students agree to hand over a percentage of their future salary to the school in exchange for partial funding of tuition and housing.

Here’s the catch: ISAs are often pushed on students who already have federal loans—so it’s just debt stacked on top of debt. And because the payments are tied to your income, the more money you make after graduation, the more you’ll have to pay back. That can leave you stuck making payments for years, and in many cases, you’ll shell out more than you would have with a traditional loan.

4. Increase your monthly payment.

Okay, so how exactly do you get the extra dollars to throw at your debt snowball? Well, you can boost your student loan payments in a ton of different ways.

You could pick up a side hustle (like delivering food or driving with Uber), take on extra hours at work if possible, or sell stuff (it’s the perfect excuse to clear some clutter). You can also cut back on spending and use the savings to fuel your loan payoff. Figure out what works for you and your lifestyle—just do something. And remember, you only have to hustle until you’re debt-free. You’ve got this!

The Bottom Line

You just got a ton of info in a very short amount of time, so don’t be afraid to reread the sections that apply to you and give yourself a minute for all this new knowledge to set in. Once you’ve gotten a handle on everything, you’ll be in good shape to get rid of your student loans.

When you have the right game plan and the motivation to attack your student loan debt, you’re ready to win! And you shouldn’t have to wait a decade to get your life back. You’ve got what it takes to get rid of your student loans now.