For Student Borrowers, Time to Start Repaying Loans
“Certainly there are reasons to be cautious,” said Adam Minsky, a lawyer specializing
in student loans, “but the program is still very much in existence.”
Ms. Cheng advises borrowers to submit a certification form, provided by the Department of Education, to document
that they are employed at a qualified job and that their payments are being properly credited, so that they remain on track to have their debt forgiven.
Spring graduates typically get notices from a loan servicer — the company
that processes payments and manages a student’s loans — the following November, with payments beginning in December.
If you don’t know who your servicer is, you can check the National Student Loan Data System
to find out which company handles the loans you borrowed from the federal government.
Or you can contact the financial aid office at your alma mater, said Persis Yu, director
of the Student Loan Borrower Assistance Project at the National Consumer Law Center.
If you have not received any sort of notice by now, it is best to contact your loan servicer, said Diane Cheng,
associate research director at the Institute for College Access and Success, a nonprofit organization.
The average debt per borrower in 2016 ranged from a low of $20,000 in Utah to more
than $36,000 in New Hampshire, according to the nonprofit Project on Student Debt.