At 18, I wanted a career that would allow me to be creative, challenging, and still have a lot of fun. After chatting with several people including a college admissions advisor and my uncle among them, I’ve decided to go into Game Software Programming. It was a great field in designing games and what not and finally decided to attend Westwood College Online. This way I could work part time and still attend college and become independent now living on my own.
In 2007, the advisor told me that the total program would cost $70,000 but not to worry because the average starting wage in the field was about $60,000 to $80,000; and at the time gas among other things (food, rent, etc) were much cheaper than now. I had decided to go ahead with this and enrolled in August of 2007, the first two years were great. In 2010, the college started sinking, good professors that were always there for me were nowhere to be found including my good advisors both financial and academic. Then lawsuits piled on the school and the college sent us letters saying it was all bullshit and they were getting them dismissed one by one.
My third and final year came and the classes got to be sooo time consuming that along with my full-time job that I had earned in the spring of 2010, I just couldn’t keep up with the course load and the time it required so I asked to be switched to a different major, business administration specializing in financial management or accounting for short. The job I’m with is a seasonal lawn care company and struggled off and on working 12 to 14 hour days through the spring, summer, fall. I was able to catch up in the winter term somewhat but with all of the failing classes I was on warning and the end of the winter term that if I didn’t take 6 classes I’d be dismissed from the school. So I took 6 classes in the spring and I actually turn all of my focus to these classes and blew off work to stay afloat until week 7 of the 9 week term came. I had gotten such a discouraging message from the finance department of Westwood College Online that I thought would never happen. “You are not allowed any more sufficient funds since you have reached your maximum loan limits. Therefore, you will need to secure private funds to continue admission with Westwood College Online.” I had called everyone I knew with the college and was put on hold for hours. I called SallieMae to see what was going to happen and they said that they cannot say anything at this time because they weren’t allowed to.
The term ended and my email and student login account was gone the day after it ended. I felt like someone used me for 4 years and racked up $78,000 in loans mixed between Federal and Private and another couple grand in Pell Grant and simply just kicked me out like that. I had moved back into my parent’s house out of the city an extra 30 minutes in drivetime to work to save some money on rent and start paying my small credit card debt I had used in the past. Finally got an email on my private account 6 months later (Oct ‘11 I believe) stating that SallieMae would be getting in contact with me to discuss loan payments. Of course this email came from an auto-no reply address and so I resent this letter to every email address in the finance department of Westwood College Online that I could get ahold of asking for more information. Nothing came, except for SallieMae’s phone calls and letters. I talked to the lady on the first phone call and she told me that I had to pay $800 a month, I counter-argued that the college told me it would be no more than $200 at most. We went back and forth for a few hours before she hung up on me. She called back the next day and I told her that I demanded to speak to her supervisor, she said she wasn’t obligated to and hung up on me again. The next day a man called back asking and I told him that I had spoken to a lady the last 2 days and that I cannot pay or afford $800 end of story. He told me that such person had called but left messages and had not actually spoke to me, I corrected him and asked for his name, he hung up. After being hung up on 3 times, I just watch and listen to these calls from SallieMae come through and has actually quite amused me that they are continuing to do so.
I’ve managed to send emails about payments and only being able to pay a certain amount and they return an email in a .pdf format stored on their website which I still don’t understand because it’s a pain in the ass to get to. I’ve been laid off for the winter season of 2011 on Thanksgiving and have emailed SallieMae 5 times on how to get unemployment deferement or forbearance or on how to fix this situation. 5 times they’ve replied with the addresses of where I need to make my payment to and how to submit it. Finally for the 6th email, a guy named Robert had replied explaining the different things I can do in this situation. I did them all, requesting forbearance and unemployment deferment and also income base restriction. Amazingly they’ve done everything until July of ‘12 to all the other loans except for 2 private loans which I still have to pay. They still won’t say why those didn’t get approved. They’re still asking for $450 a month.
I am 23 in April, $78k in loans and no degree whatsoever to show for it and Westwood College Online Credits have been denied by local area colleges. I have also been turned down from about 50 job applications since Thanksgiving. The lawncare job that laid me off, will start back up in March paying about $300 a week…
In 2007, the advisor told me that the total program would cost $70,000 but not to worry because the average starting wage in the field was about $60,000 to $80,000; and at the time gas among other things (food, rent, etc) were much cheaper than now. I had decided to go ahead with this and enrolled in August of 2007, the first two years were great. In 2010, the college started sinking, good professors that were always there for me were nowhere to be found including my good advisors both financial and academic. Then lawsuits piled on the school and the college sent us letters saying it was all bullshit and they were getting them dismissed one by one.
My third and final year came and the classes got to be sooo time consuming that along with my full-time job that I had earned in the spring of 2010, I just couldn’t keep up with the course load and the time it required so I asked to be switched to a different major, business administration specializing in financial management or accounting for short. The job I’m with is a seasonal lawn care company and struggled off and on working 12 to 14 hour days through the spring, summer, fall. I was able to catch up in the winter term somewhat but with all of the failing classes I was on warning and the end of the winter term that if I didn’t take 6 classes I’d be dismissed from the school. So I took 6 classes in the spring and I actually turn all of my focus to these classes and blew off work to stay afloat until week 7 of the 9 week term came. I had gotten such a discouraging message from the finance department of Westwood College Online that I thought would never happen. “You are not allowed any more sufficient funds since you have reached your maximum loan limits. Therefore, you will need to secure private funds to continue admission with Westwood College Online.” I had called everyone I knew with the college and was put on hold for hours. I called SallieMae to see what was going to happen and they said that they cannot say anything at this time because they weren’t allowed to.
The term ended and my email and student login account was gone the day after it ended. I felt like someone used me for 4 years and racked up $78,000 in loans mixed between Federal and Private and another couple grand in Pell Grant and simply just kicked me out like that. I had moved back into my parent’s house out of the city an extra 30 minutes in drivetime to work to save some money on rent and start paying my small credit card debt I had used in the past. Finally got an email on my private account 6 months later (Oct ‘11 I believe) stating that SallieMae would be getting in contact with me to discuss loan payments. Of course this email came from an auto-no reply address and so I resent this letter to every email address in the finance department of Westwood College Online that I could get ahold of asking for more information. Nothing came, except for SallieMae’s phone calls and letters. I talked to the lady on the first phone call and she told me that I had to pay $800 a month, I counter-argued that the college told me it would be no more than $200 at most. We went back and forth for a few hours before she hung up on me. She called back the next day and I told her that I demanded to speak to her supervisor, she said she wasn’t obligated to and hung up on me again. The next day a man called back asking and I told him that I had spoken to a lady the last 2 days and that I cannot pay or afford $800 end of story. He told me that such person had called but left messages and had not actually spoke to me, I corrected him and asked for his name, he hung up. After being hung up on 3 times, I just watch and listen to these calls from SallieMae come through and has actually quite amused me that they are continuing to do so.
I’ve managed to send emails about payments and only being able to pay a certain amount and they return an email in a .pdf format stored on their website which I still don’t understand because it’s a pain in the ass to get to. I’ve been laid off for the winter season of 2011 on Thanksgiving and have emailed SallieMae 5 times on how to get unemployment deferement or forbearance or on how to fix this situation. 5 times they’ve replied with the addresses of where I need to make my payment to and how to submit it. Finally for the 6th email, a guy named Robert had replied explaining the different things I can do in this situation. I did them all, requesting forbearance and unemployment deferment and also income base restriction. Amazingly they’ve done everything until July of ‘12 to all the other loans except for 2 private loans which I still have to pay. They still won’t say why those didn’t get approved. They’re still asking for $450 a month.
I am 23 in April, $78k in loans and no degree whatsoever to show for it and Westwood College Online Credits have been denied by local area colleges. I have also been turned down from about 50 job applications since Thanksgiving. The lawncare job that laid me off, will start back up in March paying about $300 a week…
