For post-cutoff Borrower Defense applicants
You were left out of the settlement.You weren't left out of this fight.
The Borrower Defense Accountability Project is a private, membership-gated place for federal student loan borrowers whose Borrower Defense applications fell outside the Sweet v. McMahon class window — from any school, in any program — to put their accounts on the record together.
Free to join. No payments of any kind are accepted or processed on this site.
Is this you?
If all three describe your situation, this project was built for you. BDAP is open to borrowers from any school and any program — it is not limited to a single profession or a single institution.
- You applied for Borrower Defense to Repayment after the settlement's cutoff window closed.
- You attended a U.S. school you believe misrepresented outcomes, costs, or program quality.
- You have filed a Borrower Defense application, or you are in the process of filing one.
Why post-cutoff applicants were excluded
Sweet v. Cardona — now captioned Sweet v. McMahon — was a class action brought by federal student loan borrowers whose Borrower Defense applications had sat unanswered for years. The court-approved settlement created relief for a defined class, with automatic discharges for borrowers who attended certain schools and a decision process with deadlines for everyone else in the class.
Class membership was defined by a cutoff date. Borrowers who submitted a Borrower Defense application after that window closed are "post-class" applicants. They are not covered by the settlement — regardless of how closely their experience matches someone who is.
Practically, that left post-cutoff applicants back in the ordinary queue, without the settlement's deadlines or presumptions. That gap is the reason this project exists.
This is a plain-language summary for orientation only. It is not legal advice.
What BDAP does
Gather sworn statements
A guided, structured affidavit process turns individual experiences into a consistent, credible written record — reviewed by a human before it enters the shared vault.
Build the community
A real forum instead of a scrolling group chat: organized by school, by application questions, by news and deadlines, and searchable when you need to find something again.
Support a path forward
Aggregate figures and an anonymized case package give prospective law firms a clear picture of how many of us there are, and how similar our stories are.
Read this before you join
This is not legal advice. BDAP is not a law firm, has no attorneys on staff acting for members, and forms no attorney-client relationship with anyone who uses this site. Nothing here substitutes for advice from a licensed attorney about your own situation.
There is no cost to join, ever. BDAP does not take payments, donations, or fees, and no payment processing exists anywhere in this platform. Applying for Borrower Defense at studentaid.gov is also free — anyone who asks you to pay for expedited processing is running a scam.
Add your account to the record
Creating an account takes a couple of minutes. Writing your statement takes longer, and you can save it and come back. Real legal names are required — a sworn statement only carries weight if it comes from an identifiable person.
Create your account