Argosy University Student Loan Forgiveness: How to Get It

Former Argosy University students can get their federal student loans forgiven, but there is no blanket discharge for Argosy. Unlike Corinthian Colleges, ITT Tech, and the Art Institutes, the Department of Education has not issued an automatic group discharge for Argosy borrowers. You have to file an individual application through one of several federal programs.

The two main paths are borrower defense to repayment and closed school discharge. Which one fits depends on when you left Argosy and what happened while you were enrolled. Some borrowers may also qualify for relief through the Sweet v. McMahon class action settlement if they filed a borrower defense application before November 16, 2022.

Argosy University closed all campuses in March 2019 after its parent company withheld more than $16 million in student financial aid and its accreditor withdrew recognition. Argosy was a for-profit institution that offered graduate and doctoral programs in psychology, education, business, and health sciences at campuses in more than a dozen states. It was part of Education Management Corporation (EDMC), one of the largest for-profit education companies in the country.

In 2015, EDMC settled federal and state enforcement actions totaling nearly $200 million. The Department of Justice reached a $95.5 million settlement alleging EDMC violated the federal incentive compensation ban by paying recruiters based on enrollment numbers rather than student outcomes — effectively running what the DOJ described as a high-pressure sales operation. Separately, 39 state attorneys general reached a $102.8 million settlement addressing deceptive recruiting practices across EDMC schools, including Argosy: misrepresenting job placement rates and career outcomes, overstating career services, and misleading students about accreditation and credit transferability.

In 2017, EDMC sold Argosy and several other schools to Dream Center Education Holdings. Dream Center, a faith-based nonprofit, took over operations but quickly ran into financial trouble. Under Dream Center’s management, Argosy’s problems escalated from deceptive recruiting to financial misconduct.

Dream Center failed to distribute more than $16 million in federal financial aid stipends owed to students. These were Title IV credit balance refunds — money the federal government had disbursed to Argosy for student living expenses that never reached students. The Minnesota Attorney General documented that Dream Center withheld approximately $150,000 in state grant and loan funds from Argosy students in the 2018-19 academic year alone. Students reported no activity on their accounts since August 2018 and missing January 2019 stipends, leaving many unable to pay rent or buy food.

In early 2019, Argosy’s regional accreditor, the WASC Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC), found Argosy out of compliance with accreditation standards. WSCUC withdrew Argosy’s accreditation on March 17, 2019. Dream Center had failed to inform students promptly that some campuses had already lost accreditation — meaning students continued enrolling and taking on debt for credits that were less usable than they had been led to believe.

Argosy closed all campuses in March 2019. Dream Center had already filed for receivership in federal court in Ohio in January 2019, and a court-appointed receiver took control of the institution’s remaining assets and liabilities. Separately, the Department of Education terminated Argosy’s access to federal financial aid.

In 2022, ten state attorneys general, led by Minnesota AG Keith Ellison, announced a second settlement against Argosy’s owners. This action found that deceptive practices had continued even after the 2015 EDMC settlement, including misrepresentations about whether Argosy was a nonprofit institution and about student outcomes.

Borrower defense to repayment discharges your federal Direct Loans if Argosy misled you about something that affected your decision to enroll or borrow. It applies regardless of when you attended, when you left, or whether you graduated.

What Argosy did matters for your claim. Based on federal and state enforcement actions, Argosy’s documented misconduct includes four categories:

Deceptive recruiting and misrepresentation of outcomes. Argosy and its parent companies misrepresented job placement rates, career outcomes, and career services. For doctoral students in psychology (PsyD) and education (Ed.D) programs, this included misleading claims about clinical placements, internship availability, and the career advancement value of Argosy degrees. Recruiters used high-pressure tactics and were compensated based on enrollment numbers.

Misleading claims about accreditation and credit transfer. Argosy overstated the value of its accreditation for licensure and employment purposes and implied credits would transfer broadly when they often did not. For professional doctorates that require program-specific accreditation for licensure, this distinction matters.

Financial misconduct and missing stipends. Under Dream Center, Argosy failed to distribute over $16 million in Title IV credit balance refunds owed to students nationwide. Federal financial aid was sent to the school but never reached students.

Failure to disclose accreditation loss. Argosy did not promptly inform students when campuses lost accreditation, leading to continued enrollment and additional debt for credits with diminished value.

How to File a Borrower Defense Claim

You file directly with the Department of Education at studentaid.gov/borrower-defense. The application asks you to describe how Argosy misled you and how it affected your decision to enroll or borrow. There is no fee to file. Any company that contacts you offering to file your borrower defense application for a fee is unnecessary — the application is free and you can complete it yourself.

The 2019 borrower defense rules are now permanently in effect. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed July 4, 2025, restored these rules. Under the 2019 framework, you must demonstrate that Argosy made a substantial misrepresentation that you reasonably relied on when deciding to enroll or continue attending, and that you suffered financial harm as a result. The burden of proof is on you as the borrower.

Building your evidence is important, but you don’t need a perfect paper trail. If you still have enrollment agreements, promotional materials, emails from admissions staff, or course catalogs, those are valuable. But even if you have nothing from your time at Argosy, you can draw on the public record — the DOJ and attorney general settlements, the WSCUC accreditation action, the Debt Collective’s Argosy Borrowers Report, and evidence compiled by advocacy organizations and online borrower communities. Former Argosy students have organized in Reddit communities and advocacy groups where borrowers share documentation and experiences. Crowdsourcing evidence from other borrowers who attended your campus or program can strengthen your individual claim.

Processing times are long and approval rates are low under the current rules. The 2019 rules historically approved roughly 3% of borrower defense claims. The program’s outcomes have depended heavily on which administration is in office — Obama created the program, the first Trump administration processed virtually no claims, the Biden administration discharged billions, and the current administration is operating under the permanently restored 2019 rules. Department of Education staffing reductions in early 2025 have further slowed processing. Expect a timeline measured in months to years, not weeks.

If your claim is approved, the relief includes: full or partial discharge of your federal Direct Loans for Argosy, refund of payments already made on those loans, removal of negative credit reporting, and restoration of federal student aid eligibility.

The full borrower defense process, eligibility rules, and what to expect are covered in How to Qualify for Borrower Defense to Repayment.

Sweet v. McMahon Settlement

The Sweet v. McMahon settlement (formerly Sweet v. Cardona) may provide automatic discharge if you filed a borrower defense application before the court’s cutoff dates. This class action lawsuit accused the Department of Education of failing to process hundreds of thousands of borrower defense applications. Argosy University is listed on Exhibit C of the settlement — the list of schools with strong indicators of substantial misconduct.

Class members are borrowers whose borrower defense applications were pending as of June 22, 2022. Class members are entitled to automatic loan discharge, refund of payments, and credit repair. Over 200,000 borrowers across all schools in the settlement have been ordered discharged. Courts have enforced these obligations — the Ninth Circuit rejected the Department of Education’s emergency appeal in March 2026, and the Supreme Court declined to hear the schools’ appeal.

Post-class applicants filed between June 23 and November 15, 2022. For post-class applicants who attended Exhibit C schools (including Argosy), the court set a deadline of January 28, 2026, for the Department of Education to issue decisions on their claims. A separate deadline of April 15, 2026, applied to post-class applicants from non-Exhibit C schools. If the department missed these deadlines, post-class applicants became eligible for automatic discharge under the settlement terms.

If you filed a borrower defense application after November 15, 2022, you are not covered by the Sweet v. McMahon settlement. Your claim will be processed under the standard 2019 borrower defense rules.

Full details on the settlement, class membership, and current status are in Sweet v. McMahon Settlement Update.

Closed school discharge cancels your federal student loans if you were enrolled at Argosy when it closed or withdrew shortly before the closure. This is a narrower path than borrower defense — it only applies to borrowers who were still attending or recently withdrew. But for those who qualify, the process is more straightforward because it does not require proving that Argosy misled you.

You qualify for closed school discharge if:

You were enrolled at Argosy University when it closed in March 2019. This includes students who were on an approved leave of absence at the time of closure.

You withdrew within 120 days before the closure date. For loans first disbursed on or after July 1, 2020, the lookback window is 180 days instead of 120. Since Argosy closed in March 2019, most Argosy borrowers’ loans were disbursed before this cutoff — meaning the 120-day window applies.

You did not transfer your Argosy credits to another school or complete a teach-out program. If you used your Argosy credits toward a degree at another institution, you are not eligible for closed school discharge on the loans associated with those credits.

Automatic closed school discharge applies to borrowers who did not re-enroll in any Title IV-eligible school within three years of Argosy’s closure, provided they enrolled at Argosy after November 1, 2013. If you meet these criteria and took no action, the Department of Education should have automatically discharged your loans. Borrowers who believe they qualify for automatic discharge but have not received it can check with their loan servicer.

To apply, visit studentaid.gov/closedschool or contact your federal loan servicer directly.

Closed school discharge and borrower defense are not mutually exclusive. You can file for both at the same time. Borrowers who were enrolled at or near the time of Argosy’s closure can file both — closed school discharge may resolve faster, while borrower defense covers a broader range of harm.

A detailed walkthrough of closed school discharge rules and the application process is in Closed School Loan Discharge.

Income-driven repayment forgives your remaining federal loan balance after 20 or 25 years of qualifying payments, and Public Service Loan Forgiveness does the same after 10 years if you work for a government or nonprofit employer. Neither program is specific to Argosy — they apply to any federal student loan borrower who meets the requirements. If your Argosy loans are not discharged through borrower defense or closed school discharge, these programs offer a longer path to forgiveness.

Income-driven repayment (IDR) plans cap your monthly payment at a percentage of your discretionary income and forgive any remaining balance after 20 or 25 years of qualifying payments. The Department of Education completed a one-time IDR account adjustment in late 2024 that retroactively credited months that had not counted toward forgiveness. If you have been repaying your Argosy loans for many years, your payment count may be higher than you think — check with your servicer.

Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) forgives your remaining balance after 120 qualifying payments (10 years) while working full-time for a government or nonprofit employer. You must be on an income-driven repayment plan and making payments through a qualifying servicer.

Both programs require ongoing enrollment and payments. If your borrower defense or closed school discharge claim is denied or takes years to process, any qualifying payments you make while waiting count toward IDR and PSLF timelines.

IDR plan details and the account adjustment are covered in IDR Waiver Adjustment.

A 2022 settlement by ten state attorneys general cancelled approximately $2.1 million in institutional loans Argosy had made directly to students, but there are no current programs for private loans from third-party lenders. The settlement, led by Minnesota AG Keith Ellison, covered 12 Argosy campuses and included cancellation of outstanding principal and interest, a prohibition on further collection, and removal of negative credit reporting. These were institutional loans — loans made directly by Argosy to students, not loans from lenders like Sallie Mae or Navient.

If you had institutional loans directly from Argosy, this relief may have already been applied to your account. If you believe you qualify but have not received relief, contact the Minnesota Attorney General’s office or your state’s consumer protection division.

For borrowers with private student loans from third-party lenders, there are no current federal or state programs providing forgiveness specific to Argosy. Your options are limited to the same paths available to any private loan borrower: negotiation, settlement, refinancing, or, in some cases, bankruptcy.

Parchment handles transcript orders for Argosy University. You can request your transcripts through parchment.com. Search for “Argosy University – All Campuses,” select your campus, and follow the ordering process.

If you cannot locate your records through Parchment, contact the higher education regulatory agency in the state where your campus was located. State agencies such as the Arizona State Board for Private Postsecondary Education and the Utah Division of Consumer Protection maintain transcript access information for closed institutions.

Your Argosy transcripts may be useful for two purposes: supporting a borrower defense claim (documenting your enrollment, program, and what you were told about outcomes) and, separately, for professional licensing or employment verification.

You do not need to pay anyone to file a borrower defense application or a closed school discharge application. Both applications are free and filed directly with the Department of Education at studentaid.gov. Companies have been reported reaching out to former Argosy students and charging fees of $900 or more to file these applications on borrowers’ behalf. These services are unnecessary.

If someone contacts you offering to help with your student loan forgiveness application for a fee, be cautious. The Department of Education does not endorse or work with third-party companies to process borrower defense or closed school discharge claims. Student loan lawyers and nonprofit legal aid organizations can help borrowers navigate the process.

Argosy University appears on Exhibit C of the Sweet v. McMahon settlement, which is the list of schools with strong indicators of substantial misconduct. However, Argosy is not on the Department of Education’s list of schools with approved blanket discharge findings. This is an important distinction: schools with blanket discharges (like Corinthian Colleges, ITT Tech, and the Art Institutes) receive automatic group relief. Argosy borrowers must file individual claims.

You can check the full list of schools with borrower defense findings and settlement status.