juillet

I'm pretty sure that you would have to be in public service for the entire 10 years, and public service usually means working for the government in some capacity. Sometimes working in allied health or as a physician in an underserved area counts too.

The details are usually very clearly outlined when these loan repayment programs come up.

This really isn't radically different from anything they're already doing -- it's just another way to repay your student loans. They already have graduated repayment (which is when your monthly payment starts out small and gets bigger over time) and extended repayment (allowing you to repay over 30 years instead of 10). This is just a natural extension cognizant of the times -- repayment based on your income. You will probably accrue interest during the months that you don't repay if you are under the poverty line (as deferred loans and loans in forbearance still accrue interest as well, even if you defer them for financial hardship). I think the idea is that if your loan payments are income-based, you should be finished paying them off before 25 years.

Man, I wish my Stafford loan rate was 3.4% instead of the standard 6.8%.