I have $180k+ private loans and $100k+ federal. Working on PSLF for federal. I once had hopes and dreams and have found myself in basically, debtor prison (with work release!).
Originally took out $144k in private. Have paid $70k. Still owe $180+k. Navient called the police on me and I was mental health arrested from work a few months ago. PSA: don’t tell them that your life insurance is your plan to pay them back.
So, now just waiting.
welcome to the debt collective…you are not alone. we are here organizing together for a debt jubilee and free college
Hello all.
I attended the Art Institute of Philadelphia from '08-'09. I just stumbled upon this site today and I would like to file a DTR. Unfortunately I have no documentation from the school as proof. If anyone can point me in the right direction, it would be super helpful!
Thank you!
Hello,. Welcome to the Debt Collective. You don’t need any specific evidence of your school’s crimes. The violations of the law are already well known and in the public domain. The most important thing you can do is tell your story in as much detail as you can. Your experience counts as evidence.
I am over 60 years of age with over $140K of student loan debt that I have been paying for over 15 years steadily. It never seems to end! I only owed $61K (that’s with interest) when I consolidated about 10 years ago and it has grown steadily since then to what it is now. I have tried everything, but now they want me to pay $1600 a month; I can’t pay it. I’ve been out of school since 2001 and it just gets worse. My good friend who is also in her 60s is facing the same issues. Is there anything anyone can do to help us?
I am a father of 2 young children and devoted husband to a wonderful wife with a mental disability. My children go to the cheapest school possible. I am drowning in debt even after a bankruptcy 2 years ago. I have an MBA from a for-profit college from which my degree effectively disables my job prospects. I work. Full time. I am in the upper working class. My net worth is negative and has not been positive since the day I walked onto my undergrad campus. We struggle every month. I have $60,000 in student loans that have almost doubled in interest and I cannot afford to pay them.
MY EDUCATION
I went to a private under-grad university that prepared me for a career that would not allow me a living wage and pay my student loans. I moved home after undergrad and began to work in jobs where I was underutilized, under appreciated, and had low pay. I became a realtor 2007 hoping to find a balance between my student loan debt and income. When the housing bubble burst, I was forced from that dream and luckily found a position in the public sector. Eager to move up, I worked diligently to perfect my craft and was promoted. Looking ahead, I knew there was a ceiling to the position I held and that I would need to better myself somehow to (hopefully) one day meet that balance.
Being a newly married man with a beautiful toddler in my life, I began my search for a graduate degree.
THE START OF MY NEW LIFE
I decided on an MBA program that was newer to the area. It was a for-profit college that was growing in popularity and recognition. They had confident and well informed staff members that slung the idea of a higher education and the career prospects that come with it like a Roman soldier on horseback riding through battle. And to my delight, the school offered an extremely accelerated program on a ground campus that did not hold the stigma of the dreaded ‘online programs’ that were beginning to pop up all over the news.
Three weeks into the program, my wife and I suffered a miscarriage. It was one of the most awful and emotionally numbing experiences I have ever experienced. I called my teacher and asked for a meeting. My focus was on the reality my family had been thrust into and would be doing myself a disservice to continue-on in this emotional state. I was quitting. The teacher had a long talk with me, he comforted me, and said that he could not allow me to postpone my effort and needed to keep me in the program. He offered to allow me an extra three days to make up a week of missed work. The deadline was 6am on the day his grades were due. It was fair and sensitive. Yet, the delivery was cold and robotic as if it were standard-issue and forced.
My wife was emotionally dead. She fell into a deep depressive state. She began to recluse. She started to see doctors that diagnosed her with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Paranoid Personality Disorder, and an Anxiety Disorder. All stemming from personal tragedies that had happened throughout her life. All of which came crashing down with the loss of our baby-to-be.
Because of her emotional state, she was unable to work, unable to eat, unable to get out of bed in the morning. She was in an emotional vegetative state that ceased her existence and two months later was diagnosed with an aggressive melanoma that required 11 separate surgeries - some small and routine, some long and large that left long forever-healing wounds across her body. Good news – all healthy tissue around those wounds.
THE PROGRAM
18 months I worked to exhaustion each day. Full time job in the morning, reading hundreds of pages of text and writing tens-of-thousands of words in research papers long into the mornings and almost all of my weekends – watching my wife and child fall asleep on the couch each night patiently awaiting the moment that dad could take a break from tapping away at the keys.
All classes at the school were set up on a team basis. Each team of three to four students would form a charter and collaborate on projects throughout the class. When one of the team members were late or indifferent about their share of the project, it fell to the other team members to tow the line. Faculty could be approached about enforcing the charter against the team member’s lack of effort. The charter would be deemed useless and a standard response would be given.
“Just like in the real world: If one element of the team fails, the whole team fails.”
Even when removed from the team, that member would still be scored on the team’s effort for the class.
I became the editor and collaborator for each team throughout the program. Everyone in the program knew that no matter what natural disaster, dog-ate-my-homework excuse, or minimal and disastrous atrocity of the English language turned in to the team, I was NOT going to fail. I would research the entirety of the project and write outlines for myself so that when my teammates inevitably failed, I was prepared to carry the team to completion. And I did. Over and over again for 18 grueling months.
GRADUATION DAY
Graduation Day was the most prideful I had ever felt. I woke up bright and early and headed out across town to the ceremony. My wife, child, and a few family members would meet me at the venue and cheer me on to new prospects. I remember how I felt standing in that back hallway waiting to enter the rented arena. Looking out through the curtains and catching sight of my wife as the loves of my life shuffled across the aisle and took their seats.
That’s when I heard the sentence that would drown that beautifully bright morning in a sea of depression.
“If it weren’t for Google, I wouldn’t have never made it here today.”
At first, I laughed and asked if the phrase’s source standing behind me had gotten lost on the way to arena. He laughed back and stated he would never have passed a test if he could not have googled the answer to each question on each of his exams. The shock on my face was surprising to him. He nudged his friend telling him “This guy didn’t know how to ‘research’ the answers for the tests.”
“Oops, that sucks for you.” His friend replied as others overhearing the conversation nodded in agreement.
The curtains opened and in my confusion, I stumbled out into the great hall to cheers from all sides. Down the center aisle, the tassel lightly tapping the back of my head in an attempt to revive me from my stupor.
I remember looking up at my wife and seeing her adjusting our daughter’s dress. It felt like the last picture I would ever have of her. As the rest of the congregation sat, I remained standing as the tidal wave of reality crested and crushed my soul. I stood there. Shocked. Looking into the crowd of liars and cheats. Wondering how many others there were like me whose crowning accomplishments were being robbed of their luster right there in the open public with so many eyes watching.
THE AFTERMATH
Seven years later, I am still in public service. I have taken on other lateral positions but my only accomplishments have come from very hard work and mastery of my pre-grad skills. I have a professional resume that is filled with valuable experience in a plethora of areas and I have not been to an interview in years.
The school’s alumni outreach program contacts me often to tout the university’s marketplace. “Come buy a t-shirt and a coffee mug and by the way, here are some free socks to show your pride in your alma mater.” The university’s job marketplace holds job listings as I write this for Cashier-Restaurant Team Member, Dishwasher, Meat Clerk, Server, Utility Worker, and Assistant Food Service Manager. All of which have salaries of less than half of what I was earning when I started graduate school.
THE MESSAGE
These for-profit degree-mills are conning a generation into indentured servitude. I have been had. As have all of the others that have become after and before me. The university’s website proudly displays a banner celebrating its millionth alumni. 1 Million! 1 out of every 327 Americans! A group the size of the entire population of MONTANA has been defrauded by just one of these organizations. Actions like theirs have crippled a generation with student loan debt. We are faced with a looming economic crisis where our government loses billions, if not trillions of American dollars.
The choice becomes:
Do we do something about this now, suffer the hit to our economy with the loss of this money owed to the American people, and release a generation from their bonds to stimulate the economy again?
Or
Do we sit on our hands patiently awaiting the day we as a people realize that these debts will only ever be partially recovered and lose an entire generation of consumers?
Hi Desolit. Thank you for sharing your story. This makes me very angry. We are definitely not going to wait patiently for something to change. We are going to fight for it. Please stay connected to this community. We are going to be campaigning for debt relief for all. In the meantime, please share this resource with anyone else you know who is in the same boat.
I went back to school for my degrees to help people and became a bedside RN and then an NP. I work in cardiology which is a pressing need in this country. While finishing my masters degree I found out I had a life threatening heart condition myself and required a pacemaker. On top of my almost 1500 dollars a month student loan payments, I have $152,000 in total student debt, I am also still trying to pay off my medical bills from the pacemaker. It is hard to try and get ahead and enjoy the fruits of hard labor when there is so much debt constantly. I joke with my patients that I am a walking ATM for creditors, specifically the government. I tried to sign up for the government nurse corps loan forgiveness scholarship and job, but every time I went to the website (over 18 times during 3 weeks) it was down and not working and I called the phone number 5 times and was always on hold for more than an hour and when I wasn’t disconnected I was given no help as well.
Its also hard to take care of people sometime when they don’t have health insurance but they get pacemakers and other life saving surgical procedures and don’t pay the hospital anything, and then I am trying to do everything right and have insurance and am still trying to pay off my bills. It just makes me wonder when those that are working hard and doing the right thing are going to get some help.
I enjoy my job of helping people, but I had to take out debt to get my degree to do the job, plus I could not work full time so I had to take a little extra for living expenses. When you have to get advanced degrees to do things that are meaningful in society such as health providers, teachers, counselors, etc. it is hard to see when you will ever get to enjoy the benefits of working that hard.
My husband and I owe over $140,000 collectively in federal student loans. We graduated 10 years ago, after learning that half of his community college credits did not properly transfer into the university, and the university was having him retake classes he passed (at our expense, of course). We had to FIGHT fight for those remaining credits to count, though the damage was already done.
I think it’s funny how the Credit Card Act prevents credit card companies from marketing to people under 21, but the student loan machine is brainwashing us into thinking we can pay back what we borrow. Never mind graduating during a hiring freeze, never mind STILL not working in my field of study.
I have BPD and I have a lot of anxiety surrounding the overwhelming debt hanging over our heads. We tried repayment plans, but I was out of work on disability for a few months and could not cancel our payments (they start drafting 10 days before the due date).
Now we are receiving bully notices.
What can we do??
Hello! Thanks for sharing this story. You make a very good point about regulations for credit cards! We are getting ready to launch an organizing campaign for FULL student debt cancellation. Watch this space, and please please ask your friends and family to join our community as well.
I went to a private school Though it was a “good” school, it was very expensive. At the time (2003-2008), you had to include your parents income, by whom i did not receive any assistance, in any financial aid filings. I received very little financial aid, and graduated with $80k in private loan debt. After forbearances, it ballooned to nearly $130k!!! After years on stressful phone calls, dozens of credit hits (they wanted nearly $900 a month payments), and high interest forbearances, we have come to a monthly payment that will get me paid in full slightly before my 90th birthday.
They recently contacted me about getting out of debt with a settlement of $30k-$35k, saving nearly $100k. I dont have $35k laying around or I would have jumped. I have read about your organization and the great work you have done. I am hoping similar to the rolling jubilee that we together can take back our futures by helping each other. Im sure you all feel as alone as i do
Thanks for listening. If anything, its cathartic to tell my story.
Thank you for sharing your story. Question, they are offering you a settlement on your private loans? not federal loans, right?
Yes, they are private loans through Navient. They were sure to hammer my credit for a decade before offering it!
Hi, my name is Ches. Graduated college in 2012 and currently have about $55k in student loan debt and over $6k in credit card debt. My wife has over $65k in student loan debt as well. We live paycheck to paycheck. I don’t even make $30k a year. I defaulted on my loans because they stopped letting me defer. I leave my phone on do not disturb because debt collectors won’t leave me alone despite me telling them I literally have no money to spare after paying bills. My car got repossessed because of my financial situation. The government began to garnish my wages. I’m severely depressed and believe a fair bit of it is due to my financial problems and feeling as if there’s no way out. I’ve even tried killing myself because I saw no way out, but that just ended in hospital bills. I’m probably going to die with student loan debt.
Hi Chelsey. Thank you for writing and sharing your story. Very sorry this is happening to you. We are organizing here to win debt cancellation.
I wanted to mention that our organizing team can try to work with you to stop the garnishment you are experiencing. We have a garnishment dispute tool on our DISPUTES page. Check it out. Using the tool will put you in touch with an organizer.
Hi there,
If you want to have a call and discuss your situation. I would be happy to help you as much as I can.
Here is a link to the dispute tool Ann mentioned.
https://tools.debtcollective.org/wage-garnishment-dispute
My name is James. Together, my partner and I took out about $175,000 in loans to pay for our graduate and undergraduate programs. With a price tag like that, you might assume at least one of us works in a profitable industry. Unfortunately, no. I am a teacher and she is a librarian. To date, we have paid $178,662.19. I am 33 years old. No house. No children. My life savings is $3,220.90. I do not have anything for retirement, and we still owe $76,213.91.
I don’t see a way out.
I am not looking for debt-cancellation; I am just looking for some kind of hope.
I recognize that I made some poor decisions, and that those played a role in why I find myself in my current indebted situation.
I wrongly thought (if I thought at all) that it would be relatively easy for me to pay back student loans.
I wrongly thought that having university degrees would make it easier for me to find a stable job with decent pay and benefits.
I wrongly thought that I would be able to escape the intense financial hardships of my childhood with education.
I wrongly thought that I could free myself from the fetters of poverty if I could just free my mind from the psychological limits it imposes and that I could do so by following my intellectual and creative desires instead of dollar signs.
I wrongly thought that pursuing a career path in a field for which I had deep passion and interest would help carry me through and past difficult times, and that I would ultimately find myself in a better place.
I wrongly thought that moving from a very conservative, rural area to a large metropolitan area in search of greater opportunity and creative and intellectual stimulation, not to mention greater freedom to be who I am and freer from the threat of violence and humiliation, was not the solution it promised to be as it is far more expensive.
I see that those misconceptions among many others are part of why I have a huge debt now, and that as everything, I must live with the consequences of my decisions.
I also see that my debt has more than doubled since I finished graduate school due to the high interest rates of my loans.
I also see that my debt increases each year because interest capitalizes and compounds because I don’t make enough money even to pay just the interest on the loan.
I also see that unlike other debt, I cannot discharge it anymore due to laws passed by Congress more than 20 years ago.
I also see that I cannot re-finance my loans to a lower interest rate if I want the meager protections the government provides.
I also see that if I wait out the entire loan term that although the remaining balance will indeed be discharged, that it will nonetheless therefore be counted as income for which I will be responsible for income tax; and that I will have to enter into some sort of payment plan even more harsh than the current one.
I also see that if I make it through to the end of my loan term that I will be a senior citizen in retirement without a pension or savings and over 1 million dollars in debt.
We built this platform to join together with others and build power to challenge creditors and change the current reality/dynamics. Do your friends have a similar experience to yours? Will you ask them to join this platform so we can begin to coordinate a campaign for full debt cancellation and tuition free edu? We have power in numbers and there are masses of people experiencing what you’ve just described. We need to build a robust debt resistance campaign. We are getting ready to launch this effort and each new person who joins tilts the balance in our favor.
I am here for the organizing. What do we need to do? How many people?
I am +50K in debt doing the pay-as-you-earn option on federal student loans. My debt is increasing because the monthly payments that were calculated based on my income are not covering the interests, but I won’t put a penny more. I am hoping to get the debt cancelled after 120 payments as I work for a non-profit, but see that only 3% of people that qualify for this option get their debt cancelled.
I am here because I heard Astra talk on the Intercept podcast and believe in collective bargaining. I can bring more folks, but it would be good to know what we can do.