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Virginia Loan Forgiveness Program

Benefits
Eligibility
Calculation of Program Benefits and Spousal Income
Applications

The Virginia Loan Forgiveness Program has three key features: immediate loan forgiveness, no income cap, and no asset or other income test. Your debt is forgiven every year you work in qualifying public service. You are eligible for public service loan forgiveness regardless of how much you earn. And your personal assets are excluded from consideration in determining your benefits under the plan.  

These promises support the Law School's commitment to making public service a viable career option for graduates who work in the public interest anywhere in the world. As a public institution of the Commonwealth, the Law School is also committed to enabling graduates to practice in underserved areas in Virginia, including in private practice. Graduates who enter public service employment within two years of graduation or within two years of completing a judicial clerkship are eligible.

Benefits

Graduates who earn less than $35,000 per year are presumed unable to pay their Law School education loans. They receive 100 percent assistance for the year. Those who earn $35,000 or more are presumed able to pay one-half of their income above $35,000. For example, if a graduate has an annual loan payment of $10,000 and earns $40,000, the program would require the graduate to contribute $2,500 each year (half of what the graduate earns over $35,000) and the Program would provide $7,500 each year. For married graduates, spousal income may be taken into account in calculating benefits.

Program funds are distributed at the beginning of each calendar year and forgiveness applied at the end of each calendar year, provided that the graduate remains in qualifying employment for 12 months. If a graduate becomes ineligible at some point during the 12 months, the graduate must return a prorated portion of the funds he or she received at the beginning of the year.

Eligibility

Public service employment is defined broadly to include jobs worldwide with federal, state, or local governments, legal aid offices, prosecutors, public defenders, the military, public interest organizations, and legal reform groups that qualify as nonprofit organizations.

Graduates working in private practice in the Commonwealth of Virginia are also eligible for loan assistance because those earning a qualifying salary are likely to be practicing in an underserved area and therefore performing a public service. Graduates in judicial clerkships are not eligible while clerking, but become eligible if they enter public service employment within two years of the end of the clerkship(s), so long as the clerkship is taken immediately following law school and is no longer than two years.

Graduates remain eligible for loan assistance for up to 10 years in the program and become ineligible prior to that point if they leave public service employment. In addition, a graduate is ineligible if he or she is delinquent on loan payments or places his or her loans in forbearance.

Graduates may defer or suspend participation in the program if they postpone or leave employment for childbirth or because of a disability. Graduates engaged in part-time public service employment are eligible for benefits on a prorated basis.

The Program Director makes all final determinations regarding program eligibility.

Calculation of Program Benefits and Spousal Income

Funds distributed to a graduate in any given year will be based on the graduate's earnings, which is determined by the graduate's program adjusted income (PAI). For married graduates, spousal income will be considered in the calculation, as will the spouse's graduate educational debt. The spouse's earnings will be the total of the spouse's program adjusted income minus any annual payments for graduate school loans. A married graduate's effective PAI, therefore, will be either the graduate's individual PAI, or one-half of the graduate's PAI and the spouse's earnings, whichever amount is higher. For example, consider a married graduate who earns $30,000, and whose spouse both earns $60,000 and owes $10,000 each year in graduate loan payments. The spouse's earnings for purposes of the Program would be $50,000. The effective PAI for this graduate would be $40,000 (half of the total of the graduate's PAI and the spouse's earnings, which is higher than the graduate's individual PAI).
Applications

Re-applications should be submitted, along with supporting documents, by Nov. 30. New applications are due by Dec. 15. The necessary supporting documents for applying and reapplying are described in the application.


If you have questions, please contact:

University of Virginia School of Law
Office of Financial Aid
580 Massie Road
Charlottesville, VA 22903
Phone: (434) 243-8632
Fax: (434) 982-2128
cfb8e@virginia.edu