Hi! My name is Marie. I am 35 and live in Durham, NC. I have about $10K in student debt for my BA which I received from a small private university in 2007. I’ve been paying small amounts for a long time and have had $10K for many years. I can’t work much right now due to covid school/childcare closures, though I’m very, very lucky that my spouse makes enough for us to get by at the moment. I’m paying about $100 a month of this debt, a lot of which goes to interest. This also keeps me from paying off some credit card debt and a couple thousand dollars in medical debt from the birth of my second child. I hate this situation, but what worries me more is the situation my parents are in. They took out Parent Plus loans for me 2003-2007. They had good intentions, but of course it’s been a cluster. As a teen I had very few freedoms, was totally financially illerate, yet I was made to promise I’d pay back the loan for them. The layers of predation, ugh. The interest rates are horrible. My father has tried to get me to refinance the loan, which would make it private, and I’m not interested for obvious reasons. I have given them money when I can, which is not often, and right now I can’t pay them anything. They’ve both lost work due to covid, and I know this high loan payment hurts them. Their politics are often antithetical to their own interests and usually antithetical to democracy, and I doubt they would think abolishing debt is moral. Still, I worry about them. I’m joining the debt collective for myself, but also because I don’t know that’s going to happen to my parents. I’m looking forward to learning more. Thanks.
Hey all!
My name is Brooke, 26 years old from Lusby, Maryland. About an hour outside of DC and Baltimore. I have about 70k in student loans from my BA in Political Science and English. I love what this group is doing and would love to help out any way I can.
Hi, I’m Elizabeth Bender, I’m an Electrical Engineer and graduated in 2016.
I took the path to go back to school when I was married and had two kids already. I needed a major change and retail didn’t work for me anymore. I started back at my local community college and then transferred to one of my state unis 2, or so, years later.
Being married, a non-traditional student (early thirties at the time), and two children, I attempted to work while being a FT student and she worked FT as well. I quickly found that I couldn’t put the focus needed for my studies to do that, so I quit working. To supplement the lost income and off-set my wife’s income I had to maximize my loans to make sure we could cover basic living expenses. Even while we were using state aide.
It took a while, but I graduated and we added another child to our family. 80k debt didn’t seem like that much and with PYE type repayment plan the first two years weren’t hard at all. I was lucky, I could afford what we needed and we started looking for a house.
Now, the payment has quickly ballooned to $800/mo or so, but I’ve let it slide due to COVID. I’d rather use that $800 for other expenses, like braces for my kids and myself. Among other things, better spent than allowing the government to profit off of my learning.
I’m very anxious about how I’m going to afford that payment, plus normal expenses after the moratorium expires.
Hello! My name is Graham Emel. I’m a Junior in college currently. I have about 20k in private loans and 20k in government loans. All my siblings have debt, two of which have over 100k from Sallie Mae. We are all spiritually crushed from the sheer mass, which by some miracle, grows and grows. I just attended a talk with Thomas Gokey, and was absolutely inspired. I want to do everything I can to free others from debt. Hang in there.
Good evening.
My name is Em (she/her). I’m a Graphic Design graduate from Texas who has had absolutely no luck finding work in the field. In my family, all kids were expected to go to college and be good, successful little children. I never knew the nature of the debt I was being saddled with until I had already graduated.
120k in private debt (not counting my federal debt) is the sword of Damocles that hangs over my head on the regular. I make only 25k a year and it is frankly disgusting that I’m even expected to repay this thing in the first place for wanting a well-paying career that my private college promised me I had such high chances of getting immediately on graduation.
I have to fight, but I’m still not entirely sure how. Defaulting on this debt would mean losing everything. Living in the streets. I’ve been searching for someone, anyone at all, who may be in my shoes and taking a brave stand. My sister directed me to the Debt Collective. I couldn’t be more grateful to have found this place.
I need help. I can only pull out so many forbearances before the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board tightens my leash to choking point. Are there any chapters in Texas? Any actions I could take? Grassroots efforts? Resources? Recommendations? Anything means hope.
And in kind, I promise to fight for all of you. We’re in it to win the freedom we’ve always deserved in the first place. Let me know. I stand in solidarity with my fellow debt resistors.
Hello everyone! My name is Priscilla and I have about $60k in federal and private loans. It could be more, but I stopped opening the envelopes. I abruptly ended my schooling in Sept 2008 and still incurred a whole semester or year of loan. I stopped paying some years ago because I could no longer afford it without jeopardizing my home income to afford a place to live and food to eat.
They had the audacity to tell me (on our last call) to borrow a family members credit card to pay off all the student loans. So they expected me to use someone else’s credit card to pay them off and then have a bran new debt.
My credit has been ruined since, and they don’t stop. New names for who’s collecting on their part, but always harassing. They garnish any tax returns, anything that is supposed to come my way.
I have no present, and no future with this hanging over my head.
I haven’t been able to afford to pay them off but they’ve refused to do any realistic plan which would technically have me paying until I’m in my grave or 150 years old.
This need to stop. There should be no reason, that in this “Grand Country” of ours, here should be such a huge debt for our future. Our future of ruin, that’s what it is.
So the rich remain rich and those that can’t afford college end up just as poor or worse off than when they began.
Good luck to all of us!
I’m so sorry all of this is happening to you, Priscilla. It’s inhumane and disgusting to subject you to all this trouble. Money brings out the worst in humanity and it shows.
This year could very well be a breakthrough point for all of us with enough people power and dissent. In the meantime, there are things you could possibly do to get these parasites off your case. This site has a debt resistor’s handbook for dealing with collections and knowing all your rights in this situation.
Don’t give up. Fight these people and make a stand for yourself. You can only be told ‘no’ so many times if you’re stubborn and resilient. It’s people like you I’ll be fighting like hell for. All best and stay strong. We’ll get through this.
Hello, all. My name is Wendy and I have a parent plus loan of over $100,000 plus my kids also have loans. The largest debt is ironically toward the education of the kid who got the most grants, fellowships and awards. They weren’t enough to pay housing, food, materials. Since then it just goes up and up. I owe for him and his younger brother - each owe 10,00 and $30,000. Their oldest brother is working on paying off $15,000 or so. I never imagined that the plans would require such HUGE monthly payments, since they advertised income-driven. But the payments are really unrealistic.
Hi, Elizabeth. I’m Wendy, a single parent who divorced shortly before my kids started college. I have a PhD and should be comfortable. Instead of I am full of anxiety even though I have a regular job.Why? I’m asked to pay $900/month to nelnet. I never imagined they would set monthly payments so high!! Unbelievably cynical. This situation will kill the. middle class if we don’t do something!
I so agree with you. It is comforting (but also scary) to see how bad it is for everyone, DebtSlaveNoMore and everyone else. From Wendy.
Thank you for your kind words. I just inquired and I have about $23k in federal loans and $53k in private loans. 
Oh I didn’t even get to complete the degree at the time.
Hello from Chicago, IL! My name is Maddie (she/her). I have $150,000+ in federal loans from my undergraduate degree and graduate degree. I completed my graduate degree in 2020. I’ll begin paying under an income-driven repayment plan once the moratorium ends. I’m really concerned for my mom, who took out Parent Plus loans for me - so far, we’ve worked out that I’ll pay what I can to her monthly. If anyone has other information/insight as to Parent Plus loans and family members who have taken out loans to assist, I’d be so appreciative! It’s nice to meet everyone and I’m looking forward to working with you all!
Glenn
Did you every send me a DM or email. I know you wanted to chat.
Alicia
I introduce myself, my name is Christine, and my degree is in InfoSec. My debt is 215K and went to a profit university. I have four jobs and trying to retire in 5 more years after finishing my 120 qualified payments. I am living in SD, but I had problems with Federal Servicing Loans that are not accepting 12 qualified payments. Has been denied. I am working since 2009 with the same organization - and cannot retire until my 72 years old. Well, it is the short story of my problem.
Hello Everyone,
My name is Sophia Keller. I’m 70 years old, and until this decade I managed to pay for my education and stay ahead. In 2012 I began a PhD in Public Policy and Administration. Inl 2016, with just 3 courses left – only my dissertation remained, I was told I’d exhausted my loans. Then I learned that although my loan supposedly had a cap of 60k, the school had extended it without notifying me and I now owed 132,000 + – and no degree. Attempts to query and discuss this went unanswered. I couldn’t afford a lawyer to challenge the school. I had planned to work off my debt by serving an underserved area, but without the degree that’s not an option.
What’s most frustrating is that my school cheated me. But deep breath, I’m trying to make the best of the situation and at least dig out of this dreadful debt. I’ve always stayed on top of my expenses till now.
Hello! I’m August (he/him). Currently unemployed digital strategist in the Northern VA area. I have a MA in Strategic Communication from American University and a BA in English from VCU. Really thought there would be a strong market for someone looking to work in communication, but it takes forever to get your foot in the door and into a position that pays the salary flyer after flyer told me would be waiting for me if I worked hard, got good grades, and followed the rules.
I have around over $98,000 in federal student loan debt that President Biden could cancel at any time and relieve an enormous amount of stress from young people of color like myself who want to purchase homes, volunteer their spare time helping others, spend money in the economy, support politicians seeking to earn our vote, etc. Happy to be in the fight with you all!
Hey everyone! I’m weirdly excited to be here and be part of this collective action. My name is Stephanie Kass and have about $300,000 in law school debt. I graduated college in 2011 with little to no debt. I took out student loans for law school and graduated in 2014 with about $250,000 in debt. I had two repayment options: the 10-year plan (almost $2,000 a month, which I couldn’t afford) or income-based plan. I paid about $300 a month for a couple years and ultimately repaid about $30,000. The interest was so high, however, that my total went up to $300K. I have yet to make a dime. We followed the rules and put in the hard work. We kept our end of the bargain and the system did not. The amount of debt we owe collectively truly does make us the owners of these banks, lenders, etc. No one is coming to save us so let’s save each other!
Hello! Thank you for your work!
I’m new here and about to begin amassing debt for graduate school. I wonder if anyone has any advice at this phase of my process (choosing which loans to take, choosing lenders, for examples)? I’m so ignorant about these things, after having attended undergrad 30 years ago while state schools were more affordable, and my privileged social location and parents helped me.
I love the focus and commitments of this organization and look forward to deepening and broadening our shared claims and access to the commons and power with one another on our reparative, regenerative way toward collective liberation and a just society. <3
Hey everyone! My name is Mariel (she/her). I have about $55K in graduate loans and am committed to working in public service for the next 10 years to qualify for loan forgiveness but with every passing year I’m less and less certain that that will actually happen, and so I want to get involved in revamping PSLF to make it actually functional.
My husband, who I’ve just invited to join, has over $100K in undergrad and grad loans. He joined the military to get school paid for but somehow the military was able to justify not paying for any part of his degree or paying off his loans, so he’s been serving our country for 10 years without getting any educational benefit.
Hi my name is Ana and this is the story how my daughter (and my husband and I) accumulated over $200K in student loans, most of them are private loans.
Our daughter was always a particularly good student.
She’s an intelligent, kind-hearted and hardworking young women who, if it wouldn’t be for her mental illnesses, would have a scholarship throughout college, which would keep her student loans manageable and they would be federal loans not private ones.
But because of her mental illnesses she lost her scholarship and in return accumulated this insane amount of student debt.
She has social anxiety and has it from a very young age and throughout the years she developed more mental illnesses.
When we got her with a doctor and into therapy she got diagnosed with anxiety, depression, and panic attacks due to her social anxiety.
She’s also a hypochondriac and is prone to obsessive thought spirals.
The high school years were hard for her.
She had days where she could not get out of bed because of her depressions, and the anxiety and panic attacks got worse, too.
But with the help of her therapist and doctor she got better, finished high school, and got a scholarship which should keep her student loans down.
Her psychiatrist and psychologist gave us a letter and told us we should registered her with the accessibility office at her college.
We did that right after we moved her into the dorm.
When she registered with the accessibility office, they promised her (and us) to take good care of her and that they will support her.
They promised us that they look out for students with mental health issues and accommodate their needs throughout the years.
After all the bureaucracy we had to go through to get her registered, the only thing they could offer her, was some leniency with due dates on assignments, but only if her professors agreed to this (yes, if the professor didn’t agree she would not even get this help).
She also was expected to go to each professor and explained her situation in the beginning of each semester.
Knowing about her social anxiety I was worried how she could do this.
How can she talk to a stranger about her most personal issues?
I was worried and confused how this should help her.
She finished her freshman year passing all her classes but getting worse with her depression and anxiety (unknown to us).
She came home for the summer and enjoyed being together with us and seeing her siblings. She told us that her depression and anxiety is still a daily struggle but assured us she has it under control.
But she didn’t have it under control (unknown to us).
She thought she can handle her mental health issues by herself. She wanted to proof us, and herself, that she is strong enough (and grown up enough) to deal with everything on her own.
When she returned to college she spiraled even further down, and out of control (unknown to us).
She tried to see a psychologist trough the mental health department at the university but was only able to see a psychology student because of this weird rule the university has.
Before any student can see a psychologist (MD) they need to see a psychology student for a couple of months.
At every appointment she got a different student and needed to tell her story from the beginning, but they didn’t actually know how to help her.
She also was not allowed to see a psychiatrist before she saw a professional psychologist (which was not for several months).
The procedure to make an appointment was also a nightmare, it was all too much for her.
It’s hard to make an appointment if you’re ill, and if you’re mentally ill, it becomes almost impossible.
And the fact that during summer there’s no mental health available (like mental illnesses take a break over the summer!) didn’t help either.
She couldn’t do it anymore, and of course couldn’t ask for help (because of her social anxiety) so she stopped going at once.
She thought nobody understands her and felt all alone in this endeavor to get better.
Nobody of the mental health department ever checked on her.
There she was, all alone in her dorm, scared and not knowing how to move on with life.
Still all unknown to us!
All our children know they can call 24/7. And they do!
So when she started not calling that often anymore I thought the classes keeping her busy, and that she is doing homework and studying and that she’s hanging out with her friends (I didn’t know she didn’t have any).
When I called her, she told me she’s doing fine, she’s attending classes and do well in them.
She was too embarrassed to tell me what really is going on and that she needed help.
She was too ashamed.
I had no reason not believing her, or to check up on her.
Neither her, nor her siblings never lied to us (other than the white lies as teenagers lol).
They were all good students and never really got into trouble.
So this lying was something new to us, but we also know that lying is very normal for mentally ill people, we just didn’t know this was going on with her.
She didn’t want to lie and felt awful about it, but her brain was messing with her, and she couldn’t deal with it at all.
That year (sophomore) got worse and worse. She fell into deep depression and severe social anxiety.
There were days and even weeks where she couldn’t leave her dorm room.
She couldn’t shower or take care of her room. She physically couldn’t get out of bed.
So she stopped going to her classes.
None of her professors ever checked on her, nor did her adviser.
She couldn’t email them either, because even thinking of contacting them over email made her physically sick and she had to throw up.
She was embarrassed of her illness, she thought she was a failure in the eyes of her professors, her classmates, society, and her family.
She thought she’s a burden to us and the world.
When she finally got out of this state of deep depression, she still couldn’t go back to her classes.
She couldn’t face her professors because of her social anxiety, and because she was so ashamed of her illness.
Even the thoughts of emailing or texting them made her physically sick.
She never got any email or text from her professors or her adviser, it was like they didn’t care.
It was like she never existed for them.
So she stopped attending and failed the whole semester. All unknown to us.
I should have checked up on her grades, but this was never an issue in high school, so I was just blindly believing her. And she was very good in hiding all of it from us. I knew she has depression and social anxiety but never in my dreams did I imagine how bad it was.
When we got a letter from the university letting us know that because of her poor attendance and failing her classes she lost all her scholarships, we immediately drove our RV up to her and spent time with her.
My husband could work from home (RV) so we could stay as long as needed to help her get back on her feet.
We got her professional counseling (outside the university) and helped her to get back on her feet.
Together we managed to stabilize her and bring her to a point where she can take care of herself again.
During this summer she met a group of people who, to this day, are still her friends.
They told her that she could have taken a medical leave all the way up to her last day of her classes and would not have her GPA affected because of failing classes (and probably not lose her scholarship).
That btw, would have been her advisers’ job to tell her, but she failed to do this, and so, her GPA took a nosedive.
She had a hard time to keep her GPA above 2.0 because she still had to drop classes sometimes because she was too overwhelmed with everything.
She got a job with the university but had to leave it because it was just too much for her next to school and live in general.
Due to her low GPA and poor attendance record she was not able to get any federal loans anymore.
We talked to her adviser and counselors and professors in hope they could help us.
They told us we could appeal to the board.
They said we needed a statement from her adviser saying that she has now a support system in place, that she sees a therapist and that she has a plan how to finish her degree.
Her doctors from back home even wrote letters to the appeal board.
Her adviser agreed to write a statement, but she took too long to write it (even though we reminded her many times) and therefore we missed the deadline of the appeals board.
The board said this was our responsibility and even though we showed them the emails we had between the adviser and us, they did not reverse their decision.
That meant that starting her 3rd year she needed to take out private student loans, and because of her low GPS we needed to cosign the loans.
On top of not helping her they also did not take her failed classes off her transcript (even though they promised her they will do so, because of her mental illnesses) and because of this, she needed to do a fifth year, and needed to add thousands more to her student debt.
But she never gave up and achieved her dream of getting a degree.
Not only did she get a degree, but she did it all by herself. She overcame every hurdle, learned how to live, and deal with her mental illnesses, worked hard and graduated. But for what price?
Many times she said she should never have gone to college, but then, she wanted a degree so badly.
Her sisters already got their degrees, so there was this kind of pressure on her (pressure from herself, not the family) to finish college, too.
During her junior year she really turned herself around (with help from her therapist and friends).
She learned how to deal with her bad days and what her stressors are.
She learned how to reach out and how to take care of herself.
She even took a summer job as a food bank associate.
During her last year she was working as an after-school care site administrator.
She worked with underprivileged kids. She loved this job because she
could help them, she could make a difference in these kids’ live.
This was an hourly job, and she didn’t make enough money to support herself, so she also got a job as a deliver driver in the evening.
But because of COVID-19 she lost both jobs.
But she made it! She graduated college and now has a bachelor’s degree.
It took her 5 years, but she made it!
We are so proud of her; she came a long way. And most of all, she is proud of herself.
She reached out and got help, she learned how to live with her mental health problems, she got a job, and she got a degree, but for what price?
She learned so much during her 5 years of college.
Not only did she earned a bachelor’s degree, but she also learned how to live with her mental illnesses. This is a huge accomplishment.
Her graduation got canceled because of COVID-19, that’s sad but we all know it was for the best.
College can be hard for some people. The kids must grow up quickly and deal with so much new stuff. She also had to learn to deal with her mental illnesses.
I’m scared so much every time I think about how high her student loan debt is.
How will she be able to pay for all this loans? And a car, and insurance, and an apartment?
How can she pay for food and medical expenses?
I’m so worried how she can enjoy life with all this debt.
Will this affect her mental status again? Will she fall into depression again?
I’m worried that she starts thinking again that she’s a burden to us and the world.
I’m worried that this will make her depressed and anxious again.
I’m worried about my husband and me, too. We are over 55 and now have $200K loans to pay off next to all the other loans we have.
I just got a job so I can help her pay the monthly payments. She is not able to do that on her own.
I am still angry at the University.
They promised her to help her, but they did not.
They promised her to take her failed classes off her transcript, but they did not.
I’m angry at the counselor who didn’t care enough to help us.
The appeal board did not reverse their decision, although we did everything right.
All these false promises from the university brought us to $200K student debt, and over half of them are with a private bank, which are much more expensive to pay back.
Is it our fault that we are in such high debt? Yes and no.
Yes, because we should have informed ourselves better before we co-signed the loans, but we were over our heads with all what was going on, and the financial office at the university told us that this was our daughters only chance to get a degree.
No, because if the university would have been there for her and would have helped her fairly, we all would not be in this mess.
My husband and I immigrated to the US in 1996 and we were totally not familiar with universities and student loans. This is no excuse, I know, but still we think the university cheated our daughter from a positive college experience and burdened her (and us) with so much student loans that she probably will have to pay back her entire life.
I would love to get help with any advice on how to handle these private loans, but I’m worried there’s no help for us.
Thank you for taking the time reading my (our) story, sorry it was so long!