Student Loan Assistance

Not sure what your first steps are? Feel free to review this Savi Quick Start Guide (PDF) that walks you through an overview of the program and what you can expect as you begin the enrollment process.

Visit tiaa.org/pitt/student and follow the path to register and explore your federal forgiveness options. You'll need three things to use Savi effectively:

1. Your full 9-digit social security number
2. The first page of your most recent tax transcript or tax return
   1. A tax transcript is a summary of your recent tax filings that can be requested from the IRS. Each transcript includes important information for applying to new student repayment plans, such as your filing status, adjusted gross income, wages, and more. Request a copy of your tax transcript online.
3. Logins to any loan servicers (e.g., Navient, Nelnet, Great Lakes)
   1. Your login information includes your username or email, password, and anything else required to log into your student loan servicer's website. Your student loan servicer website is the place you to go to make payments on your student loans. This information will be used to import your student loan details into Savi during the account setup process.

Savi's Student Loan Checkup tool is free to use and helps determine possible student loan repayment options and forgiveness programs for which you may be eligible. To use the tool, you will need to enter some personal information about yourself and your current loans. The tool will provide options that you may take with your loans, such as enrolling in an income-driven repayment plan.

Savi Essential Service provides step-by-step support to help you qualify and enroll in federal forgiveness programs, as well as ongoing support, reminders, payment tracking to ensure that you remain eligible and in compliance.

The University has waived the $80 essential service fee for eligible employees.

Savi regularly offers free webinars (PDF) to eligible Pitt employees to help educate you on topics related to student loans, including Public Service Loan Forgiveness. These webinars are perfect if you want to learn more about loan forgiveness, regardless of whether or not you decide to enroll in Savi.

To see a list of upcoming webinars, check out the University calendar and search Savi webinars.

It is crucial to stay in control of your student loan records. Savi provides options for you to safely back up your most important student loan documents like your Master Promissory Note, PSLF Credit Counts, and loan servicer correspondence. This simple step will protect you and ensure you always have access to your information, even if it is unavailable on federal systems. 

The new document upload feature can be accessed from your Savi Dashboard by clicking "Uploaded Documents". For further questions, please reach out to the Savi Help Center.

Want to promote the Savi program in your worksite? Download this Savi Flyer (PDF).

More Helpful Tools

• Savi Presentation (PDF)
• PSLF Frequently Asked Questions (PDF)

The Federal Government has a program specifically for people who work for nonprofit, government or public sector employers. If you work for one of these employers, have Direct Loans, and make 120 monthly on-time payments, you may be eligible to have your remaining federal student loan debt forgiven tax-free.

Entering into PSLF or another forgiveness program requires a commitment to see it through to the end. Switching to an income-driven repayment plan (required if you are working towards PSLF) may actually cause your student debt to increase over time, which can be problematic unless you get forgiveness at the end. If you know you will not be working full-time in a non-profit for 120 months, then forgiveness may not be the right path for you. Individuals may want to consult their personal tax or legal adviser before making any decisions regarding the status of their student loans.

TIAA has joined forces with Savi, a social impact technology company, to help you navigate federal student loan programs. Their student loan solution will help you identify eligibility for federal income-driven repayment plans and forgiveness programs designed specifically for people who work at eligible public interest employers, that is, at a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit school, university or hospital; in government or approved governmental entities; or at a few other public interest organizations.

This service is designed to make that process easier if you are eligible and applying.

Savi was started as a social-impact public benefit company. The people behind it are student loan experts, advocates and borrowers who have been fighting for many years to improve the broken student loan system. Savi realized that the 44+ million student loan borrowers needed better and more personalized information about how to manage and repay their debt. Savi helps people navigate the valuable but complicated federal programs available to people who work in public service. TIAA has a minority ownership interest in Savi.

Savi is a social-public benefit company founded by student loan experts, advocates and borrowers who’ve been fighting for many years to improve the student loan system. The Savi team realized that the 44+ million student loan borrowers needed better and more personalized information about managing and repaying their debt. Savi’s technology helps people navigate complicated federal programs that are available to those who work in public service. TIAA has a minority ownership interest in Savi.

Savi users saw average projected savings of $140 per month and an average projected forgiveness of $40,000 per borrower.

Savi offers three service tiers to borrowers.

1. A free calculator to assess their situation and get guidance on the best options available.
2. Borrowers can also enroll in Savi Essential for $80 year. Savi will administer the program’s ongoing paperwork requirements, including annual reenrollment, employer certifications, and filing for PSLF credits with the Department of Education. This service helps borrowers avoid common and not-so-common errors and stay on track for forgiveness with the correct paperwork. 
3. University of Pittsburgh employees get Savi essential at no cost when you sign up with your University of Pittsburgh email.

University of Pittsburgh covers the cost of Savi Essential when you use your University of Pittsburgh email address at enrollment.

Savi Essential takes the stress out of filing. For $80 you can receive customized one-on-one support from Savi’s student loan experts, and Savi will administer all the paperwork—including employment certification and e-filing on your behalf.

• Digitally prefill all forms and check them prior to submission
• Submit and track applications and forms on your behalf
• Provide ongoing application monitoring and reminders to ensure you cross the forgiveness finish line
• Track the accrual of PSLF credits throughout the process to prevent surprises at the end of the repayment period
• Get annual enrollment reminders and updates on new programs and policy changes

Borrowers who enroll in the Savi Essential service save, on average, twice the amount of the annual fee in a single month under an income-driven repayment plan and report more than a 98% success rate when submitting paperwork for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. Savi experts keep you on track and help you through the entire process.

University of Pittsburgh covers the cost of Savi Essential when you use your University of Pittsburgh email address at enrollment.

Go to TIAA.org/pitt/student and follow the path to explore your federal forgiveness options or register for a free webinar to learn more.

You’ll need three things to use Savi effectively:

1. Your social security number (format: 123-45-6789)
2. The first page of your most recent tax transcript or tax return
   1. A tax transcript is a summary of your recent tax filings that can be requested from the IRS (Internal Revenue Service). Each transcript includes important information for applying to new student loan repayment plans, such as your filing status, adjusted gross income (AGI), wages, and more. You can request a copy of a tax transcript in about 5 minutes by visiting irs.gov/individuals/get-transcript.
3. Logins to any loan servicers
   1. Your login information includes username or email, password, and anything else required to log into your student loan servicer’s website. Your student loan servicer website is the place you go to make payments on your student loans. This information will be used to import your student loan details into Savi during the account setup process.

IDRs are repayment plans that take into account your income, student debt, and personal situation and may result in lower monthly payments. The plans that qualify you for PSLF include IBR, ICR, PAYE, and REPAYE. The Standard repayment plan technically qualifies as well, but since this plan spans only 10 years, you wouldn’t have any balance left to forgive after 120 qualifying monthly payments.

Student debt you’ve incurred on behalf of children (Parent PLUS loans) may qualify for relief. You may need to first consolidate them to Direct Consolidation loans; the tool will help steer you in the right direction. 

To be eligible for forgiveness, you must be a full-time employee of an eligible public interest employer, that is, at a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit school, university or hospital, or in government or approved governmental entities. You can take Savi’s assessment to help identify if your current or former employers qualify. 

You need to recertify your income annually, but if your income decreases at any point OR you added a dependent (or even become pregnant), you can submit IDR paperwork to have your payment recalculated immediately to try to lower your monthly payments.

No. Once you’re a registered user on Savi’s website, you can try out the free tool first and decide later if you’d like to take advantage of the digitized application filing and access to one-on-one customer support available in Savi Essential. Each year you’ll be asked if you want to continue with the service and pay the annual fee. The University will continue to pay the Savi Essential Service fee as long as you remain in an eligible position.

You can attend one of Savi and TIAA’s biweekly webinars to see how Savi can help you find your best repayment plan and forgiveness options. Savi will also discuss the latest Department of Education policy updates. Register now at tiaa.org/Pitt/student.