It all started went i went to University of Toledo for my bachelors in nursing, I took out Sallie Mae loans which I thought at the time were federal, I had been living on campus so you had to have a 2300 meal plan per semester if you were a freshman and live on campus, I had been working at bob evans as a waitress to pay my bills and get by. I also had a fiance who became abusive emotionally, physically and mentally, I became very depressed and eventually that led to me dropping out of nursing school in may of 2006, after I left him that summer I wanted to pursue my life long goal of becoming a nurse, so in November of 2006 I started going to Brown Macki in Findlay for nursing, I took out Sallie Mae loans again and thought they were federal, I was still workign as a waitress but had to work less and less as the classes became more difficult, i finally decided to go to the astrive website and take out private student loans so I could graduate, I finally finished nursing school in Septmeber 2008 and had no i dea what i was in store for. In march-April 2009 I started getting bills for my loans, i owe Sallie Mae $56,000.00!, Plus what i took our through Astrive which ended up being $25,000 plus intrest. I had worked at a hospital as an aide while I was waiting to take boards, I took boards in November and got my license and finally got a decent payong job at the end of February of 2009, while i was job searching I tried to defer my loans but i had no options with Sallie mae or the Astrive, The only thing I could do with Sallie mae was pay $50 per loan to defer for 3 months, which I did and that took me to July, as for the Astrive I had to pay somehow. I Have some other debt and medical bills, but I feel I have no options and no way out! So I thought I would go back for my RN like I planned so I met with a rep from The College Network and she made it sound great that I could take classes at my own pace and I just take the test at a testing center and when I passed I got the credits, the rep said it was an affiliate of excelsior college out of New York and I was guaranteed acceptance, She said if the program wasnt going to work I could cancel, but if I didnt cancel in 3 days i wouldnt get my $200 back, this was on July 8th, I wrote 2 checks for 100 the first was to be cashed on july 18th the other 100 was the 30 of july, so I started reading the material and decided this wasnt for me, I had worked 4 6p to 6a shifts straight and called them on the 16th of July before any checks ere cashed and they said sorry you cant cancel you owe $12000.00 regaurdless if you take any of the classes. So here I am with over $76,000 in private loans debt plus $12,000 from the college network plus everythign else! I dont know what I can do, I spoke with a lawyer and she said I may be able to discharge my loans in bankruptcy as long as they are not government insured, that was her suggestion. So thats my story, I am strapped tight as can be, with no way out, meanwhile all these people who rack up $100,000 in credit card debt and they get out scott free....and here we are with college educations cant find jobs and cant pay loans and get our wages garnished and tax returns taken away.
