I've learned a lot about the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program in the last couple of days. Here are some things to remember.

1. Your loans must all be "Direct" loans. I learned half my loans were stafford loans that weren't direct and so did not qualify. I had been making income based repayment payments during residency thinking that those payments would go toward the 120 that would qualify toward forgiveness. It turns out I was wrong because of #2.

2. If all of your loans are NOT "Direct" loans, you will have to fill out a direct consolidation loan application to consolidate all of your loans as direct loans. Once you do this, it is now considered a NEW loan. As such, any payments you made to your previous loans do NOT qualify as having gone toward the 120 payments needed for forgiveness.

3. Why is this important? Because chances are, you may qualify for loan forgiveness after residency even if you think that you don't. For example, if you work for IHC they are considered a charitable 501(c)3 tax exempt organization and so if you work for them (or a private non profit hospital like them) you can qualify to have your student loans forgiven after 120 qualifying payments. Or you could work on an indian reservation for 10 years or some other "public service" sector.

4. There is a form that you can submit to the government every year (or every job change) to ensure that you are on track for loan forgiveness. It is located here:

https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/sites/default/files/public-service-employment-certification-form.pdf

If you do this they will tell you whether your employer qualifies, how many qualifying payments you have made and how many you have left.


Don't make the mistake that I did of thinking I was on track for loan forgiveness because I worked for a state-affiliated residency and made payments on the income-based repayment plan. Be sure that you have also consolidated all of your loans into direct loans!