Student Assistance

You have the right to request a refund from your school. Once you receive a copy of all of your student documents and records, the next step would be to contact your school to request for a refund of your tuition and all other expenses that you believe you are entitled to. The school may already have an official request form that students could simply fill out or you could request for your refund by writing a letter to the school. If the school does not have an official form and you are required to write a letter to request for your refund, make sure that your name and your contact information, the date of the letter, and your refund request is stated clearly. Keep a copy of your refund request from the school in your personal records.

You have the right to request a reimbursement of your tuition from the Student Tuition Recovery Fund (STRF). The most prevalent state relief program is called the Student Tuition Recovery Fund (STRF), which is administered by the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education. OSAR staff is happy to assist you in finding, understanding and completing the STRF application, in locating your academic or financial records, in identifying and compiling all the documentation necessary to confirm your maximum eligibility for STRF, and in general we are ready to help walk you through this process in a friendly, one-on-one manner. Additionally, OSAR has provided this video tutorial on successfully completing the STRF application, which we hope you will find helpful.

Once you have completed and submitted a STRF application to our office, we require that all applicable students seek relief from various federal agencies before we could determine that the student is eligible to receive a reimbursement from the STRF.

• Closed School Loan Discharge Application
  1. This application exists to help students who were unable to complete their programs due to school closure and utilized federal student loans to fund their education. By receiving a closed school loan discharge, you have no further obligation to repay your student loan, you will receive reimbursement of payments made voluntarily or through forced collection, and the record of the loan and all repayment history associated with the loan, including any adverse history, will be deleted from your credit report.
• Borrower Defense to Loan Repayment Application
  1. This application exists to help students who may have graduated or completed their programs from their institutions but believe that they may be eligible to receive loan forgiveness of their federal student loans. It’s important to know that you still are responsible for repaying your student loans taken out to finance your education at your closed school. However, students—who attended a school and believe they were defrauded or that their school otherwise violated applicable state law—may be eligible for a type of loan forgiveness called “borrower defense to repayment” (or “borrower defense”).
• Education Benefit Entitlement Restoration Request Due to School Closure or Withdrawal (VA Form 22-0989)
  1. This form exists for former servicemembers of the U.S. Armed Forces who have utilized their U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) educational benefits to fund their education. This form is used to apply for restoration of entitlement for VA education benefits used at a school that closed or had its approval to receive VA benefits withdrawn.
• FSA Closed School Resources
  1. This page was created by the US Department of Education to help explain to students how they can help if your school closed while you were enrolled, or soon after you withdrew, in situations where the school was approved to administer Federal Financial Aid programs. Visit this website to find an informative video, fact sheets, and important information on; transferring to another school, obtaining your academic transcripts, determining whether you qualify for a discharge of your federal student loans (and how to apply for a discharge), and identifying and contacting your loan servicer for assistance.

You have the right to transfer to another school. If you decide to transfer the credits earned from your closed school to another institution, your subsequent institution may perform a transcript evaluation to determine which credits from your former school are eligible for transfer. In the case that you decide to transfer your credits, you may still be eligible to receive a partial reimbursement of your tuition for the credits that were ineligible for transfer from the STRF. Your reimbursement from STRF will be prorated based on the value of each credit and the number of credits deemed ineligible for transfer. For more information and assistance in finding a new institution, check out our Researching Colleges page or contact us at (888) 370-7589, option #5 to speak with a representative from our office.