Get Started By Telling Your Student Debt Story

Cancel Student Debt and win #CollegeForAll
#9

Hi all, when I graduated high school I had no idea what I wanted to do. I honestly just wanted to get a steady job, but found that in Michigan in 2004 this was not so easy. My family is fairly educated but has never had much money, and I had no idea how the US college system worked or what to expect (I grew up overseas). I had zero sense of the expenses, how to game the system, what the cost of living would be like, and had never had the opportunity to hold a paying job in HS.
Without a lot of information or preparation to go on, I applied for winter admission to a few small liberal arts colleges, and ended up at one with a steep tuition but good quality programs. But, you know, liberal arts, and the 2007-08 Recession, and all that.

Graduated with about $80-90k in loan debt, lucky enough to get a job, but no room for advancement. Gave it a while and then tried to switch jobs, and that escape plan collapsed. Moved to Seattle to find work, found work, lost work, found work… lost work again in 2013. Debt payments the whole time averaged like $600 a month even though the original lenders (Chase and MHESLA) had gotten out of any further obligations by selling my debt off. Familiar story for a lot of us by now, I think.

Truth is, I made some mistakes along the way, but those mistakes were only serious because of the situation I was already in. During phases of unemployment, looking for jobs, I sometimes had to pay for essentials using credit, so my credit card debt started piling up, too. Due to the mounting stress and despair, I also developed a reliance on alcohol for a while, which didn’t help the cost of living. (I’m a lot better now, FYI.)

Applied to grad school, started in 2015. Thought I could snag some ‘skilled’ work on the side, but this was a wild goose chase. When things got desperate, I got a part-time Starbucks gig for way less earnings than my existing skills/exp could potentially earn - another familiar story for us Recession and post-Recession folks. Started having frequent panic attacks, booze problems came back, etc. After graduation, began to stabilize with some easy temp work in town, but needed to find jobs relevant to my MA. Moved to the hellswamp (DC) to do that, and have been struggling ever since.

My private debt is in the range of $70-80k and I think my federal loans are somewhere around $80k despite breaking my back (or pounding the pavement) for about a decade to get ahead of it all. I realized the grave futility of it all and finally gave up on repaying those debts this past year. I have no idea what will come next. I’m short on rent as we speak, and even though a good job always seems to be right around the corner, it’s been 1.5 years since I moved to DC and that good job has yet to actually materialize.

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#10

$120k USD in student loan debt. I want to know what happens if I stop making payments. I can’t afford to pay this loan off.

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#11

Hello and welcome to the platform. Please don’t blame yourself for any of this. This is not your fault. The system is the problem. Are you paying your loans now? We have dispute tools for debts in collections. In the meantime, let’s bring other people onto this platform and get organized to fight back together.

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#12

Hello. Thanks for joining the platform and for your question. Not paying your student loans comes with serious consequences, but in some cases it might be the right thing to do. In the case of federal loans, the govt can eventually seize your tax return and a portion of your wages. This is why it’s a good idea to sign up for forbearance or income-based repayment (if you don’t earn very much, your payments on IBR can be very low, even zero). Signing up for one of these options will protect you from the worst consequences. In the case of private loans, they creditor may eventually sue you. But we have members who have successfully talked creditors down so they end up paying much less. This can be a good strategy for some. We should work to find the best short-term solution for you while getting organized for the longer fight. We need a JUBILEE of all student loans. We can fight for that together. Some elected officials and others are already starting to talk about it.

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#13

I gotta Jubilee kinda of case. ITT technical Institute victimized me. 2002 to 2007 out of state tuition 23 years old with bachelor’s degree. Highest point of my life. 900$ dollar pay checks, 350 a week in tips. Head boss and this school full time. 18 to 23, year after graduation 2008 debt and child support came to reality. Wage went to 350$ week child support rose too 35,000. Court fines and fees for unpaid tickets resulted I’m suspensions. Not working resulted in more suspensions due too child support. I’m left with 60% of my check. My school debt as risen over 100,000 and my mom cosigned me. I was pressured to move out of state on promises from recruiters if I graduate I’m looking at a entry level job starting at 50,000 $ a year. Instead of 8 years of school I’d finish in 5 years. 2009 had my second kid. Year later CPS entered my life cause of financial stress. 2011 to 2015 had 4 more babies and my youngest boy after divorce was wrongfully terminated based on finacial support in Montana Aug 2017. This school has destroyed my reputation, my relationships, my life and I’ve never seen 5,000 dollars cash. I’m 34 years old and at 30 the Lord lifted my veil through all the pain and suffering. He lead to be Prophecy. When you say Jubilee you saying the prophetic written word of this torture so many of us received. This suppression of our constitutional rights. A inheritance in store for us all. I’m filing civil lawsuit on CPS too another Goliath just like this one. I’m doing this for my reputation only. The money means nothing but like the Bible says ITT Technical Institute made me meek but the Lord put every trial so the wise man receive the inheritance when hes righteous not when hes blind and stupid.

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#14

Hi I’m Robert Vavra, a recent graduate from college with $50,000+ in debt.

With a choice between taking care of my survival expenses such as food, water, shelter, and with food stamps and medicaid cut, I cannot pay any of my loans any month right now because I choose my own life over a debt system that seeks to put me further in debt.

There is nothing I personally own in money or in things that can pay off these loans, and there are no jobs for my industry.

I’m living eating lentils and rice unable to afford rent and often my phonebill today because of a trick that was played on me when I was just a kid.

Luckily lentils and rice is one of my favorite dishes.

Enough is enough! This economic system is inherently not human focused, and no lie, I cannot pay

So I am joining a debtors union and hopefully locally in Chicago. There are no other options, and I love my self more than any debt system.

I pointed it out years ago before I went into debt how absurd it was as a concept. Years later, I am completely confident my kid self was telling the truth: this system makes no sense.

So I’m here, as an American Citizen, a member of the public, pressured from the private sector to fork over all my wages. Ok. That’s not indentured servitude.

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#15

I am the only graduate in my family and the only one who lives in constant fear of my debt. I am 28 and I had to move back in with my parents. I have never had savings. My parents didnt know what they were doing when we enrolled me. I have around $35k in student loans and the interest is out of control. I feel like an idiot for going to college. Meanwhile, my younger brother has worked his way up from Barista to Store Manager at Starbucks and makes almost $10k annually more than me. I work for a great company and I bust my ass. I am constantly envious of my friends who are starting lives and buying houses because they have been able to save. When was the last time you heard anyone say “I finally paid off my loans!” Its a rare commodity.

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#16

welcome

let’s get as many people as we can on this site and then launch a debt strike to demand student loan cancellation.

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#17

Hey Ann

I’m on it. Local in Chicago, I’ll be speaking to people about debtcollective.org

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#18

Great! Two of our organizers will be at event in your area soon. Stop by if you can.

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#19

It was wonderful to attend this event!

I felt together in solidarity in heart and in the technical details I learned about wielding individual debt collectively as leverage, as well as listening to stories of debtors in similar situations to me. This is powerful!

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#20

It was great to meet you last night and I look forward to organizing efforts locally!

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#21

I am Ami. I have around 30k in federal loans for my education and my mom holds around 100k in PLUS loans for my education. I attended a for-profit school and am thankful that my loans and my moms loans are in administrative forbearance after filing a borrower defense to repayment claim. However, I filed in 2015. My claim has not been investigated, my forbearance never auto renews, and its stressful.

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#22

Same here for you Ami!

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#23

Hello from Florida, I finally got around to disputing my federal student loan. Thanks Debt Collective, I’ve been following you on Twitter. Hopefully it will work out with 2 degrees from ITT I can only find a job with the same pay as before I got my education under the GI Bill. The confirmation email for my Debt Collective was sent to junk mail so I marked it as not junk. I will let you know if my loan gets cancelled. Crossing my fingers.

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#24

Hey all. I currently have 114,569.95 in student loan debt. I went to the art institute of California in San Diego and graduated with a bachelors in graphic design. I feel that my life is consumed by debt and I don’t know what to do. I have been able to do income based payments but it’s getting harder and I have no money for myself after everything comes out of my account. These income based payments are not enough to cover the interest, yet I am paying more on student loans than I pay in rent. Choosing to go to AI is one of my biggest regrets in life and I wish I had listened to my parents who told me not to do it. I was 19 and wanted to start my life and follow my passion for art. I was told that I was almost guaranteed to find a job that would pay me enough to pay off these loans and I fell for it. While I am one of the lucky ones to actually work in my field of interest, there is NO way that any graphic design job will allow me to pay off this huge loan. After some research I learned about the DTR option and am working to apply for this, but I am unsure what I should put in this and if it’s even worth my time. Any advice or guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you all and good luck on your journeys.

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#25

All you really need is to write your story that highlights the fraud that you encountered while enrolled. If you go on to the borrower defense website you can see the questions that they will ask. I recommend filling out the answers on a separate Word document because the website will time out.

I am a person that is compelled to be very extra so i submitted a lot of documentation. There is not a limit to what you can submit. You can include documents such as proof of enrollment in the form of your degree or transcripts or both. You can include your financial Ledger. You can include career placement statistics from your time of enrollment. The art institute has all of that information online on archive.org on the way back machine. So you can find career placement statistics from the early 2000s through I believe 2013 is when they stopped publicizing them online. But they’re all misleading and fraudulent on the website with numbers as high as 100% for some degree programs for career placement and most campuses show above 90% career placement for all majors.
Other things you can include would be emails and correspondence with folks at the school and anything you think could demonstrate a pattern.

But none of it is really necessary because the fraud was systemic and there is already a ton of evidence out there to support this including thousands of other testimonies from former students who have filed their claims. That said, I still submitted everything for my own peace of mind.

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#26

The borrower defense is also nice because your loans can get put into administrative forbearance which does not count against your normal forbearance or deferment and if your ibr isn’t low it can help save money every month while the claim is investigated. Plus with the administrative forbearance you aren’t legitimizing the fraud by paying the debt. Which is where my mindset is right now. I do not want to legitimize this debt.

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#27

Hi all!

I’m Lisa, and I’m a former student of Ai Atlanta. I lost track of how much I owe exactly (most likely over $100k), and at first I thought my inability to make the loan payments was due to my own setbacks. First, I found Alan Collinge from Student Loan Justice, who earmarked some horror stories from Sallie Mae (my lender at the time), and then I discovered it might not be just me.

It was a relief to find the I Am AI group, and since I’ve been more than appreciative of the support and information from the group.

I live in constant anxiety because of the debt. Does anyone else feel dread when the phone rings, or when you check the mail? I do. All I get are collector calls and debt collection mail cause I really can’t afford the debt. It’s an all to similar story with many of us.

There are way too many news articles, threads, forums, and student debt groups to think this isn’t a problem. It was fraud and usury.

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#28

Hi,

My name is Krys. Short for (Krysta.) I currently have just under $20,000.00 in student debt. My story is kinda tricky though because i bounced around a bit in the beginning of my college career…

You see I started attending The International Academy of Technology and Design at the end of 2012. I was studying Graphic Design and and a very young adult at the time (19 years old) and being the first person in my family to apply for college none of my family really knew what to look for or more importantly what to avoid when looking at schools.

It wasn’t until late 2013 that we all got an email from the school talking of something called a “Teach Out” after the entire school has some “town hall meetings” we all pretty much understood what a teach out was and i had already told myself that I wanted no part of it. For me it was the fact that there was only one campus in the state of Michigan and if they closed that campus even in 4 years time what would I tell employers down the road? “Oh yeah I went to this school for my degree but they went out of business… but don’t worry i’m still really good at what I do?” I don’t think so.

So I transferred to a different art school literally .5 miles down the road, called The Art Institutes. I called them and made an appointment to come in and talk to them. The day I got there must have been a slow day, the front office was empty except me and the receptionist. The walls were covered in art and it looks very welcoming, very high class. I was taken back to an office and sat down. I told them what was going on with IADT (my original school) and they said that they had been getting a lot of students transferring from them and that if I transferred today they would waive their application fee and get e started in classes as soon as the next semester AND that I would be able to graduate SOONER than if I stayed there.

All of my previous credit from the past year transferred completely I would not need to retake any classes and somehow they gave me more credits than i had earned stating that some of their classes were the same as two of this school classes and that I shouldn’t need to take this class because I had technically already taken it. (blah blah blah.)

So I transferred to The Art Institutes of Troy Michigan. I completed two more years there and figured out how they told me I could finish my degree “sooner” they had meant for me to take online classes. I don’t do online classes. I have only ever taken 2 online classes in my college career and I have only ever failed two classes in my college career. In order for me to finish my degree they told me I would have to go to the Novi campus which was 30+ miles away. At this point I was fed up with being in school so i agreed. I was enrolled in the Novi campus as well as the Troy campus.

It should be noted that in this time I was denied for Stafford loans. Why? I couldn’t tell you. That’s what they kept telling me so thats what I believed. too young and too naive to know better, to ask more questions. So I did what they told me I should do… I took out parent plus loans. This is what keeps me up at night, this is what kills me slowly from the inside out. My father who would take a bullet for me in a heart beat, who worked his hands to the bone for me and my sisters and my mother his entire life, the strongest man I know took out student loans for me. This; this is how they fucked me over. Even if i die, the loans remain on his credit. He was unable to refinance his house, unable to finance putting a new roof on the house, unable to approved for a car loan when his car was totaled… all because of me. He co-signed on all my loans which means they can never be discharged, not even if I die. Kind of a fucked up way to say “I love you” to my father.

Well I graduated in 2016 after a mess of a school “experience” with a Bachelors of Fine Arts from the Art Institutes. After they too closed their troy campus and forced all the students to the Novi campus. I did it though. It is now 2019. I have given up on my dream of being a Graphic Designer. I have sent out over 300 applications, and resumes. I have attended over 100 interviews. Followed up with them I did my due diligence, but never got a call back. I have worked in retail at Khols, I have sold cable service in Sams Club, and now I work with animals which is my true passion.

I want to take a moment to thank The Art Institutes for my piece of paper and clinical depression.

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