NYLAG’s Special Litigation Unit (SLU) worked with several former students of ASA College, a now-defunct predatory for-profit school, to submit Borrower Defense loan discharge applications. This loan discharge is available to students who can demonstrate they enrolled at or continued to attend a school because of misleading or false statements made by their school. Our collaboration with former students arose after ASA College closed in February 2023 and SLU established a hotline to provide legal assistance to ASA students.
A number of former ASA students who called NYLAG’s hotline told us that they enrolled in ASA’s Nursing Program on the basis of false representations made by administrative staff. Although these students intended to study Nursing at ASA, they were enrolled in different programs of study, which they did not choose, and steered into accumulating thousands of dollars in federal student loan debt. Many were never allowed to take Nursing classes and left ASA without completing their Nursing degrees, and with no better job prospects than before. Now, with NYLAG’s assistance, these borrowers are asserting their rights to discharge their federal student loans under the Borrower Defense to Repayment loan discharge. You can learn more about these students’ stories here.1 Enclosed in each of their applications is a declaration from NYLAG showing ASA’s documented history of deceptive advertising to its students, which you can view here.2
For a timeline and more information on NYLAG’s work advocating for former ASA College students, see our landing page here.
1. Borrower Affidavit 1, Borrower Affidavit 2, Borrower Affidavit 3
2. NYLAG Declaration Regarding ASA’s Practices
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