PSLF
When I first wrote about PSLF last November, some of my blog readers/friends/colleagues mentioned that the program had only just opened, that some of the rejections were intentional ones aimed at accessing a different Congressional fund for loan forgiveness, TEPSLF, and that given some time the overall statistics might improve.
Now that another year has passed, that’s not the case.
This is really awful - the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program is just starting to come of age, and it is rejecting over 99% of applicants. From this Slate article: “Of the 28,913 applications reviewed, just 289 were approved. And only 96 people actually finished the process of having their loans scrubbed.”
I know a number of people who have made employment and then domino-effect life decisions based on getting PSLF; I myself strongly considered it as an option. In the end, due to paying off my undergraduate student loan debt by working in business and then how much I incurred in graduate school, ten years of payment were enough to fully pay off my debt anyway so it was a moot option - but I really feel for those who trusted the government on this. Given what’s currently happening, I would recommend you make your decisions without taking PSLF into consideration, but still file for it if you do happen to qualify, and then if it happens to proc you get a lottery-style bonus.