patrick.net

To be blunt, I am like many early 00s high school graduates duped into going to college. I went to college with the expectation of being able to find work after college. I studied creative writing and had five minors. But when I graduated in 2010 the Great Recession was in full swing, there weren't any jobs. I decided to study abroad in the UK to get my Masters degree. Even with an MA I can't get hired in my field, and I'm stuck working junk jobs that pay nowhere near a living wage, let alone a wage that will allow me to pay off my $81k student loan debt.
At this rate, even if I become a successful author, I'll never be able to pay off this student loan debt. I live paycheck to paycheck and writing project to writing project. I'll likely never own my own home, or even get married as I don't want to saddle my potential future partner with this debt burden.
Student loan debts in the US need to be forgiven so the thousands of people, just like me, can finally move forward. We need free tuition for state colleges so that nobody else, who chooses to go to college, will face this burden and be able to have a future.
Kristoffer J Martin August 21, 2018 Eau Claire Wisconsin

I'm 67 year old, retired, divorced and a co-signer of my daughters student loans. My daughter graduated from college a number of years ago and has refused to pay for any of her loans. Currently the student loans add up to $154,000. I am paying over $1,000. a month for her loans. I know of a number of other parents who are also in the same position. Is there no help out there for us. In good faith I signed for these student loans never thinking that I would end up paying for these loans. These loans are affecting my ability to get a lower interest rate for my mortgage. I know that I will never be able to pay these loans off. This country should be ashamed of what they are doing to mothers like myself. Since my daughter has become estranged from me I have no hope that she will help with these loans. Very upset and sad about this situation. Do I have any recourse.
Evelyn August 14, 2018 Evanston

I am looking at $350,000 of student loan debt that I accumulated while obtaining a bachelor’s degree and then my doctorate in Chiropractic. Being a business owner I have high taxes due to paying both sides of social security and Medicare, which makes it very difficult to make a living. My current student loan payment is only around $370 but that does not include my impending big loan that is currently under income based repayment. I anticipate having to start paying on it next year and that will add another $500 per month to my current loan payment making for a total student loan payment of around $900 per month. I am never going to be able to pay off these loans and can only hope that loan forgiveness still exists in 25 years. In the meantime we are trying to put back a little each month so we can afford the lump tax payment we will have to make on the forgiven sum. We estimated that it will probably be around $75-100k in taxes on the forgiven amount. We are desperately trying to find some other viable solution..
James Casey June 11, 2018 Jacksonville

I am a psychologist. I am a divorced, single mother. I have over $385,000.00 despite having the majority of my undergrad degree paid for by a scholarship. I work for a non-profit and hope to one day have my loans forgiven. I am enrolled in an income driven repayment program and still struggle with the monthly payments. I am not able to buy a house because of my student loan debt. I often think about what more I could contribute to the economy and my community if I did not have this debt.
Rebecca June 10, 2018 New Haven

Elly June 10, 2018 Pittsburgh
I attended an Art Institute because I wanted to major in art... because everyone told me it would be a very lucrative career choice. I didn't learn until after I graduated from AiP that the school was not only unaccredited (I think they became accredited shortly before I graduated), it's pretty much a diploma mill. Later on, I went to grad school because I figured getting a real art education and a master's degree would definitely put me on the right track for a career. Once again, everyone said I'd be so rich that I wouldn't even know what to do with the money I'd make.
Yeahhh, didn't quite work out that way. Between undergrad and grad school, I owe almost $135,000, and that is with a ton of grants and scholarships for both programs. Mind you, when I entered into repayment about 5-6 years ago, I owed $128,000, and in spite of giving my lender in excess of $500 a month every single month since then, the balance still went up thanks to the interest rates.
I can't even put the master's degree on my resume because it makes me overqualified for every single possible job I could have any chance of getting, so there's 50 grand wasted (the school never even gave me my diploma either). I'm working in my field now, but the problem is I only make $11 an hour and there is no chance for a raise or advancement. Meanwhile, my loan payment has gone up to over $600 a month and that is the absolute lowest it will go since I'm doing IBR on my federal loans and Navient is a bunch of greedy bastards who refuse to lower my monthly payment even by a cent even though they could in a heartbeat.
So here I am, middle-aged, watching life pass me by and watching all my friends and peers succeeding in life left and right, buying homes, having families, traveling to exotic places, getting promotions and generally enjoying the hell out of life. Meanwhile, I'm still living with my toxic, controlling parents because I can't even afford to live with roommates. I've been wanting to bring a cat back into my life after losing all three of mine to cancer several years ago, but I just can't afford to give one a good life because of the amount of money Navient demands from me.
This is no way to live, and since my parents are my cosigners and will verbally abuse me if I quit paying, I can't intentionally default. All the things people my age take for granted like simple adult independence or not having to live by someone else's rules are luxuries I (and others, I'm sure) will never get to experience. I think I would quite honestly rather be in prison than in debt because at least in prison, there's a chance I might get out one day. This debt will follow me to my grave, and even then, I could see Navient sending a representative to wherever I'm buried to dig a hole over my remains and stick a late payment notice in it.
It's horrible. So many of us are being punished with crippling debt for making the mistake of trying to better ourselves through education. I can't afford to go back to school to learn something new. I can't afford to get certified in anything useful. I can't afford to take individual classes. I've been rejected from every single place I've applied to for loan refinancing because I don't make enough money. I will never be able to save for retirement (assuming I live that long). When my car eventually dies, I won't be able to buy another one and I won't be able to get a loan for one. I will never own a house, and because of how much I owe and how I have no valuable professional skills, even if I do get out from under my parents' control, I will always have to be financially dependent on someone else to be able to afford to live. I won't ever be able to support myself. I'm at a point now where I kind of hope I develop a terminal illness just so I don't have to live very much longer and deal with this debt.
There is no way out. I know some of us can take comfort in the fact that they aren't alone in this, but it doesn't make the loan bills any easier to pay.

Jason June 4, 2018 Brooklyn
Getting an education was bar the worst decision I ever made. Granted, I didn't really make that decision on my own, at least at first. I was a hardworking and driven student during my high school years, graduating top of my class. Therefore, it only made sense that I pursue higher education at a college. I grew up in a working-class inner city family; unfortunately the public high school I attended did not have a college counselor, which meant neither I nor my family had much schooling in the real cost of college. I forwent applying to private schools and ended up getting accepted to a state school, which was considerably less expensive. Still, I ended up graduating with about $20,000 in debt, once the the interested was added on.
I was told graduating with this type of debt would really make a debt in my income; that I was more employable with B.A. than without one. However, after a few in the field I was told that the only way to make more than $27,000 a year I needed to go back to school and get a master's degree. Reluctantly I decided to do just that and was accepted by a top school in NYC. I graduated with honors...and another $40,00 in debt. Once interest was added to this and previous student loans the total amount I ended up owing was about $100,000.
Everyone authority figure I had consulted (e.g. financial aid officers, college department heads, bank reps, professionals in the field), told me the same thing: "A master's degree will make you more employable and if worse comes to worst you can always teach. Besides the monthly payments will be so low you won't even notice them."
This was in 2008. Since that time the economy has tanked jobs have dried up. I took a job teaching English at private school, which recently had to my off along many other staff members because of low enrollment and financial mismanagement on the school's part. I have been unemployed for two months now, and have almost no savings as 50% goes to rent and another 30% goes to students. At the time of writing this I have sent out 87 resumes and received exactly zero call backs. I have no idea how I am going to eat or what I am going to do if I get sick or have an accident. Still, the student loan bill keeps coming like clockwork.
The creditors offer me "forbearance" but with the caveat that the interest will continue to accrue and after a couple of months of forbearance I will be as if I had never made any payments toward the loan to begin with.
It is a nightmarish situation that keeps me up at night, and is the first thing that hits as I lay in bed in the morning. It has wrecked havoc in every aspect of my life: my spouse and I are unable to buy a home or have children due to the incredible amount of debt I carry. Likewise my credit score is so damaged by the "debt-to-earnings" ratio I have, that I'm not even sure if I could another apartment if/when I get priced out of the place I'm in. I am an industrious, bright, motivated, and creative professional who is well educated...and here I am, with no place to go.

Teri June 2, 2018 Chicago
Forced into default on private and federal student loans? Here's how it happened to me.
I went to law school at age 40. I still owed ~$25K from undergrad (child care costs, etc. carried forward after my divorce). After the first year of law school I knew it wasn't for me but, with over $25K in student loan debt from that first year added to my existing $25K loans, I knew I'd never afford the payments if I didn't become a lawyer. So I finished, but I failed the bar, with over $125K in student loans. I got a job as a legal secretary.
Today I am a 58 year old single woman, living with a friend in a trailer. My private loans have ballooned to over $95K (but I really don't know anymore), and my federal loans are well over $113K. I own no property, have no health insurance, but have a tiny IRA (under 7K). I work remotely, as a contractor, sometimes 5 hours a week, sometimes 20. I have debilitating health issues, but I control them by spending a high portion of my income on treatment.
I graduated law school in 2004, and my deferments/forbearances ran out in 2006. The private student loan payments were higher than my take-home pay. I contacted the private loan servicers several times to get my payments reduced and they said "Sorry, we can't help you." They suggested I get an additional job, borrow from relatives, or sell stuff. I told them I already worked full-time, my relatives had no money and I had nothing of value. One person I spoke with seemed to suggest I should prostitute myself. So I sent all of them what I could each month, every month, for 6 straight years. And they defaulted me anyway.
At least one private loan has been written off (only found out when the IRS told me). I have no clear records which loan was written off. My ex may have paid off those he cosigned for, but the servicers refuse to tell me if that's the case. Some services refused to send me copies of my paperwork. The defaulted loans keep getting renewed on my credit report each time they change servicers, so they will never come off. Loans could have added that aren't mine and I'd never know, since the servicers on those loans have been changed so many times I lost count.
Federal Loans - I signed up for IBR in 2009, and had a perfect payment record until this month. It had been easy to stay current before this year. I renewed with my prior servicer in April, way before the due date. My income dropped significantly due to the fact that I became remote and, I provided the requested documentation according to instruction. I was approved. A few days later, before my first payment was due, my loans got transferred to Nelnet. I made my first payment to Nelnet, according to the email and letter I received.
Less than 4 weeks before my second payment was due, I received notice from Nelnet that my payment went from just over $16 to over $903. I called immediately, and the rep told me my approved IBR plan had been unapproved/rescinded because Nelnet needed an application on its own IBR form, and they also needed more income documentation. I immediately followed the instructions and submitted the requested documentation that very day.
After a week of not hearing from Nelnet, I submitted my information again. After another week of not hearing from Nelnet, I submitted my information again and contacted a rep via chat. The rep told me the following:
- it takes up to 20 days to process the application;
- each new submission delays the process time another 20 days;
- she could put me on forbearance for a month to prevent my payment from being untimely.
It was surreal. The rep sounded like a bot. She was rude, insolent, insulting. Nelnet took over my loans on April 20 (with an approved IBR plan), accepted my first payment, but did not alert me to a problem with my application until May 18, way too late for me to remedy the situation without incurring a late fee unless I paid them $903! Nelnet seemed to deliberately delay processing in order to ruin my perfect 7 year record.
To add insult to injury, the Nelnet rep tried to force me into forbearance, which seemed to negate any future participation in an IBR plan!
I crossed my fingers and hoped that the processing of my resubmission would come in time for me to make a timely payment of the correct amount. But I also filed a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, seeking ensure that no late fee or payment would damage my payment record and reset the 25 year toll since the situation occurred through no fault of my own.
The next day I got an email from Nelnet stating that the payment information I submitted did not show gross pay or period. BUT ... not only had I named the files "gross pay," I had clearly indicated on my document submissions that the pay was gross, and bi-weekly, EXACTLY according to their request and instructions. This, it seemed, was either retaliation for my complaint (so soon?) or gross incompetence on the part of Nelnet, since it would delay my application approval WAY past the due date of my next payment.
I went ahead and send my regular ~$16 payment to Nelnet before the due date. But I know my record is ruined.
I feel that I cannot count on any agreement with regard to my student loan, since the servicer abused its position and made it impossible for me to remain timely through no fault of my own.
My student loans are nearly double what I borrowed, in spite of the fact that I've made thousands of dollars in payments over a period of over 20 years (consolidated undergrad loans with my graduate loans).
I tried to comply, keep up, stay current. But I cannot win; it seems as if the game is rigged completely against me and I have no choice but to default and let the government sue me, garnish my income, etc. At least that way, the payments will be less than what Nelnet is demand. And the stress of dealing with Nelnet will be over.
Education loans ruined my life. It was a mistake that cannot be undone. I messed up and I must pay for the rest of my life. And it seems very unfair, since people with credit card debt and gambling debt and business debt other debt can file bankruptcy and get a clean slate, but I cannot simple because I tried to improve my situation.

Esther April 24, 2018 Portland
I'm a 62 year old single adoptive parent. I took out a $45,000 federal loan to get my M.A. in Counseling Psychology when I was in my mid to late 30's. I couldn't afford to do a low fee/no fee internship for years after that, so I took a break and fell into doing corporate work. A few years later, having a stable job and a good salary, I was able to adopt my wonderful son as a toddler from a foreign orphanage. My job was eliminated days after I returned from Family Medical Leave Act, and I was then a single parent with no income. I have had a series of mostly crap jobs since then, just to keep food on the table and a roof over our heads. I was making good money doing executive recruiting for a few years in there, but 9-11 destroyed the entire industry over night. Student loans -- first Sallie Mae, and then they kept selling them to places like CitiBank -- were very happy to allow me to defer payments so I could afford to raise my son -- keep him in preschool, etc, so I could work to support us, capitalizing the interest all along the way. By the time my son was in high school, that $45,00 had ballooned to $160,000. When my father died, leaving me some money I didn't even know he had, I decided to make monthly payments to pay the loan off, thinking that would fix my credit. Instead, after paying over $2,000/month for over 2 years, and paying off $48,000, which is more than I had borrowed, the principal went down from $160,000 to $159,000..... At this point, my tax guy said it was pointless to keep paying, I was running out of money anyway, so I stopped. In come the harassing phone calls now, 4 times/day, from 8am to 8pm, 365 days/year, from the liars in the Phillipines who our government pays to harass us. I felt like I wanted to bang my head against a wall! I finally decided to bite the bullet and contact the government to see what kind of options I might have. It took 2 weeks of practically full time work to be able to even get to speak to someone in the U.S. They encouraged me to capitalize a bunch more stuff in order to be able to get on an Income Based Repayment Plan, which I did. The phone calls stopped, but now I have to fill out paperwork every year, and as soon as I start to make any money, they will come and take it. I often feel like I literally can't even afford to work, but I also can't live if we end up being homeless, which I have faced numerous times in recent years. According to the terms of the IBR, after I've been juggling this crap for 20 years or so -- which will put me in my 80s!!!!! -- they will "forgive" the balance of what I owe, and then CHARGE ME FEDERAL INCOME TAX ON THAT AMOUNT. After a few years of being on the IBR, my balance is now up to close to A QUARTER OF A MILLION DOLLARS. By the time they get to "forgiving" what's left, with the interest continuing to capitalize at 8% every time I take a shit (excuse me, but I am just beyond beyond with this crap already...), the amount I owe will LITERALLY BE IN THE MILLIONS OF DOLLARS!!!! WHERE THE HELL AM I GOING TO FIND ENOUGH MONEY TO PAY TAXES ON MILLIONS OF DOLLARS WHEN I'M IN MY 80s??????? As far as I'm concerned, this is just government mafia. I am working my ass off to support myself and my son, and to help him get through college without getting into this kind of debt himself. He's watched me go through this crap his entire life. When his college wanted to offer him student loans, he busted me up by asking "Where's the 'Fuck No!'" box??? I can't believe this has happened in my life. I'm a good person, and I do tons of volunteer work with people all the time. I can't buy a home, I'm getting gouged by ridiculous rent increases, and I AM LIVID ABOUT THIS!!!!!! I can't see any way out of this other than a political solution, which I am going to help work on, and with every single dime in student loans that we all owe forgiven on the spot. Let people like that bitch DeVos trade financial situations with me, and let's see how long that takes. VENT ON, PEOPLE! iT'S BETTER THAN KEEPING IT IN!!!!!

https://studentdebtcrisis.org/read-student-debt-stories/