Denied DTR Claim in May 2020 | DeVry Keller and "The 90% Claim" - How to proceed?

Borrower Defense to Repayment (DTR)
#1

I attended DeVry Keller Graduate School from May - July '11. I submitted a DTR claim in May 2020 citing what is known as the “90% job placement” fraudulent claim that was the legal grounds of various class action lawsuits. The most recent was McCormick v DeVry University. A major FTC Settlement in 2015 was decided against DeVry for false advertising on the 90% claim and awarded students compensation who attended DeVry programs between Jan 1, 2008 and December 15, 2016. Numerous criminal and civil probes by Attorneys General have occurred over the years as well.

DeVos incorrectly denied my claim on the basis of “Failure to State A Legal Claim” within the period where her mass blanket denials came under scrutiny from the courts. In December 2020 I received a notice from DOE that due to their ongoing litigation regarding the borrower defense program that my loans would remain in forbearance until the end of the current student loan flexibilities or until ongoing litigation is resolved, whichever is later. I would be notified about when I may need to resume making payments.

Anyone have recommendations on how to proceed or is in a similar situation who did a DeVry degree program? Should I wait for resolution and follow up notice by the DOE or file a new DTR now that Secretary Cardona is showing good faith for full discharges of Corinthian, ITT, et al.? DeVry students are entitled to relief as they have been economically harmed with worthless degrees, and non-transferable units.

#2

For right now we are in a wait-and-see mode. We expect the Biden Department of Education to make a decision at some point about how to deal with all of the improper denials that took place under DeVos. I’m not sure how long that will take, but I’m hoping it will be in the relatively near future.

There is also the Sweet v DeVos/Cardona case that you mention. We don’t yet know how that case will be resolved or how long it will take, but it is possible the court could force the Department of Education to discharge many of the the improperly denied DTRs.

So for now we are still waiting. Because of the COVID moratorium you shouldn’t have to make payments or interest on these loans. If you are being forced into repayment, get in touch ASAP and we will help figure out your options.

At some point in the future we may have additional steps people can take, but for now we wait and organize.

#3

Thanks for the feedback Thomas! My loans continue to stay in forebearance. If anything changes where they are attempting to force repayment, I will let you know!

My fingers are crossed they will address these blanket denials that occurred in 2020. They must give proper and judicious consideration to all legitimate BDR claims. DeVry/Keller students were horribly misled about job placement claims and the investigative unit created under Obama to look into the school’s conduct was completely neutered by DeVos who installed, you guessed it, a DeVry lackey into the position.

#4

Good Morning!

I too am a graduate of Keller SOM and am in the process of completing a Borrower Defense Claim but wanted to know if anyone has had any luck as of today? Also, any suggestions on what is deemed necessary to include in the claim details?

#5

According to the project on predatory student lending the case is set for July but the site fails to mention a date. Meanwhile they’re trying to put pressure on/and make Devos testify as to why the department acted so badly and lied. Hopefully that can happen.

Sweet v. Cardona | Predatory Student Lending

#6

I went to Apollo College, now Carrington college 2007 -2009. I believe they became a part of DeVry at some point around there. I am starting a borrower’s defense application and they are telling me the statue of limitations has passed.

I am going to apply anyway. I was told my credits would transfer and they did not. I ended up going to community College and repeating a lot of classes would this be sufficient proof? I had to also take more loans for the repeats.

#7

Hi Thomas
Did anything get decided on whether or not us that got the blanket denials on the borrowers defense last year and are apart of the upcoming July sweet/Cardona trial should rea
submit our claim with DOE? I called DOE a couple of weeks ago and the rep was like "Your claim was denied’ (yes I’m aware…) and I was like I know… blah blah history history etc. and he was acting like I was dusty on a shelf in the rejected pile and I should refile. When I asked him surely they know who they blanketed denial and will reevaluate once they get in trouble in court again and I shouldn’t need to repeat what I did 4 years ago… Do you have specific advice on whether we should or should not refile?

#8

Yes! @ehart459

The best info about this is here:

  1. What if my borrower defense application was previously denied?

Under the proposed settlement, the Department of Education agrees to rescind all borrower defense denials that it issued between December 2019 and October 2020. If you received a form denial notice during that time period, it will no longer be considered valid. The Department will treat your original application as if it had never been denied, and your application will become part of either the automatic discharge group or the decision group, depending on which criteria it meets. You do not need to submit another application or any other materials.

Form denial notices will be rescinded for the entire class, regardless of whether you are in the automatic discharge group or the decision group.

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#9

Probably a dumb question but… those of us who are fortunate to be in the Sweet vs. Cardona suit, waiting for full release on the finalized hearing 11/3- we should NOT need to submit an application for Bidens 1x $10k/20k loan forgiveness deal thru the app, correct?

#10

This is a good question and I’m not 100% sure what to say.

For people who live in states where the $10k/$20k might be taxed, you might want to wait. People will have until Dec 31, 2023 (that is over a year) to apply for the $10k/$20k so there is no rush. The only rush factor is if one of the lawsuits to try to stop cancellation actually gets off the ground it might be better to get cancellation sooner since it would be very difficult, probably impossible, to reverse cancellation once it gets processed and discharged.

BUT, if you don’t live in a state that might tax the $10k/$20k in cancellation, I say go for it! Apply today when the application comes back online. It won’t hurt anything, and the Sweet settlement is still not completely approved by the court (not sure how long that will take), so we can’t be 100% sure of how things will play out on that front yet either.

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#11

Ok thanks Thomas. I pray the sweet case goes as listed! Thanks for always being so responsive and informative. You do a fantastic job!