She now works for a property management company in a role that allows her to do all her work remotely. She doesn’t have her dream job as an animator with Disney, but she, her wife, and their cat Moe have a nice apartment in a quiet neighborhood.
But understandably, she wonders what her life would look like now if she didn’t have so much student debt. “My naive teenage dreams went down the drain ten years ago, and I now see a similar pattern in my adult dreams. I’m watching my little brother start his family and achieve things I still can’t because he learned from my failure. I feel like my life plans are still out of reach due to my crushing student loan debt.”
While most of Holly’s student loans were originally through Sally Mae, they were eventually bought by Navient. “There have been many lawsuits against both Sally Mae and Navient in recent years. I’ve inquired about joining class action suits, but I was told me that if I qualified for any of the settlements, that they would reach out to me. In the ten years since I graduated, they have only contacted me about making payments.”
The Art Institute of Pittsburgh has closed, been sold, and is now facing possible loss of accreditation because some necessary documentation is mysteriously missing. Despite their eventual failure as a business and educational institution, Holly is still chipping away at paying for her four years there. She’s had to arrange forebearances and negotiate lower monthly payments to stay afloat financially. “The last time I called to work out a payment arrangement, I realized that the term extension means I will be paying my loans until the age of 65. Navient wants over $1,000 a month in repayment, which is close to what I pay in rent.”
When asked about consolidation, Holly said she’s asked many times and for a variety of reasons does not qualify. “No matter how I try, I’m told I either have too much debt for the degree I obtained, I have no savings, or I’m disqualified because the school I went to did not have proper accreditation. So the money I should be putting away for retirement is going to banks, and will be until I reach retirement age. I was duped, tricked, swindled, and scammed into the position I am in now.“