Ten years.

The government has a plan for public service employees that allows student loans to be forgiven. The basic idea is that those people who work in public service will be eligible for student loan forgiveness after ten years in the field. You have to make student loan payments in a timely manner during this time and remain in full-time employment. For someone with significant amounts of student loans like myself this is a great program. As much as my job stresses me out there is no way I will be sending out resumes any time soon. The amount of loans that I could potentially have forgiven would make it foolish for me to consider going to work in the public sector. I realize that this is exactly what this type of program is designed to do. The program encourages people to pursue public service over work in the private sector in exchange for loan reductions. My salary may be lower for the time being but it will average out to more than I would make in the public sector once my loans are forgiven. I would encourage you to look into this program if you are working in a public service type of profession.