OCCUPY STUDENT DEBT

Student debtor stories submitted by the 99%

I was a student a Mount St Mary College in Newburgh, NY. My fist Student Loan issue came into play when they said I owed more money. When I questioned it I was told by Mr. Dempsey that I didn’t make enough money to fight them. It turned out that a staff member, Dorothy Brown, was applying financial aid awards from future semesters to the current semester screwing up the billing. By the time it caught up I was a Junior. MSMC held me hostage for the balance and despite a internal review in which four departments acknowledged error on behalf of the employee they deemed I still owed the money. They gave me personal info of other students, names, addreses, and social security numbers in correspondence. In order to continue school they told me I HAD TO take out a private loan through Sallie Mae. I did in teh amount of $10,000 to cover what my owed tuition. Unbeknownst to me they also took out $10,500 for the spring semester 2008 in which I was enrolled for 12 credits at a cost of just a hair over $4,100. When I took 12 credits in the summer/fall 2008 at the same cost of approx. $4,100 MSMC took an additional $12,500 in my name in student loans. In 2007 I only took $3,000 in loans. In 2006 I took $7,500. In my years prior from 2004-2006 $11.082. Not once did anyone in any MSMC department meet with me about my tuition or my loans especially in 2008. Later in 2008 I had to withdraw due to a domestic violence situation and the school’s inability to protect me with an active Order of Protection in place. Suddenly MSMC said after collecting $12,500 in my name in student loan money that I owed them tuition for approx. $4,100. When I questioned how they refused to speak to me. I had the billing woman tell me that she can do what ever she wants with my account and there’s nothing I can do about it. MSMC received in 2008 $10,000, and $23,000 in my name for tuition that was approximately $8,200. The amount of money MSMC collected in my name is more than all my other three years combined. MSMC refuses to answer where this money is. The Federal Government says that MSMC has not returned any of the money collected. From 2009 to the present MSMC will not allow me to complete my degree at just 17 credits to go until I pay this $4,100 plus fees and interest totaling $6,786.51. MSMC will not discuss where the $33,000 for an approx. $8,200 total tuition for 2008 is. MSMC will not grant me an internal review. In the meantime I am paying on student loans on a degree that I can’t complete. I can’t get an answer how $33,000 was taken out in my name for $8,200 in tuition costs. MSMC has put the bill for $6,786.51 in collections. I continue to dispute this bill and ask that Mount St. Mary College’s bookkeeping be investigated. The loss of income and the inability to gain employment in my chosen field has cost me lifetime income, in addition to interest on loans I can not pay, crippled by a college misappropriating significant amounts of money who is refusing to resolve the matter. Thank you for reading this.

I was a student a Mount St Mary College in Newburgh, NY. My fist Student Loan issue came into play when they said I owed more money. When I questioned it I was told by Mr. Dempsey that I didn’t make enough money to fight them. It turned out that a staff member, Dorothy Brown, was applying financial aid awards from future semesters to the current semester screwing up the billing. By the time it caught up I was a Junior. MSMC held me hostage for the balance and despite a internal review in which four departments acknowledged error on behalf of the employee they deemed I still owed the money. They gave me personal info of other students, names, addreses, and social security numbers in correspondence.

In order to continue school they told me I HAD TO take out a private loan through Sallie Mae. I did in teh amount of $10,000 to cover what my owed tuition. Unbeknownst to me they also took out $10,500 for the spring semester 2008 in which I was enrolled for 12 credits at a cost of just a hair over $4,100. When I took 12 credits in the summer/fall 2008 at the same cost of approx. $4,100 MSMC took an additional $12,500 in my name in student loans. In 2007 I only took $3,000 in loans. In 2006 I took $7,500. In my years prior from 2004-2006 $11.082. Not once did anyone in any MSMC department meet with me about my tuition or my loans especially in 2008.

Later in 2008 I had to withdraw due to a domestic violence situation and the school’s inability to protect me with an active Order of Protection in place. Suddenly MSMC said after collecting $12,500 in my name in student loan money that I owed them tuition for approx. $4,100. When I questioned how they refused to speak to me. I had the billing woman tell me that she can do what ever she wants with my account and there’s nothing I can do about it.

MSMC received in 2008 $10,000, and $23,000 in my name for tuition that was approximately $8,200. The amount of money MSMC collected in my name is more than all my other three years combined. MSMC refuses to answer where this money is. The Federal Government says that MSMC has not returned any of the money collected.

From 2009 to the present MSMC will not allow me to complete my degree at just 17 credits to go until I pay this $4,100 plus fees and interest totaling $6,786.51. MSMC will not discuss where the $33,000 for an approx. $8,200 total tuition for 2008 is. MSMC will not grant me an internal review.

In the meantime I am paying on student loans on a degree that I can’t complete. I can’t get an answer how $33,000 was taken out in my name for $8,200 in tuition costs. MSMC has put the bill for $6,786.51 in collections. I continue to dispute this bill and ask that Mount St. Mary College’s bookkeeping be investigated.

The loss of income and the inability to gain employment in my chosen field has cost me lifetime income, in addition to interest on loans I can not pay, crippled by a college misappropriating significant amounts of money who is refusing to resolve the matter.

Thank you for reading this.

Notes

  1. Tabitha submitted this to occupystudentdebt