OCCUPY STUDENT DEBT

Student debtor stories submitted by the 99%

Thieves - Art Institute of Pittsburgh Online In 2007, I was laid off. I was looking for a class online to teach me Autocad, to enhance my marketability. No one would offer this course as a stand-alone class. I ended up enrolling with The Art Institute of Pittsburgh Online. They helped me apply for and get a loan from Sallie Mae. There was a computer skills class required before they would enroll me in the courses with which I was interested. The first time I started the course, they were unable to provide me with study materials in time. I dropped that course and re-enrolled the following quarter. This time When I contacted the book store to get my materials, they told me that they would cost $300. I responded that I was on a student loan program and the materials should be on a voucher that the loan paid for.. Their response was that those materials could not be on a voucher because they were not on the “required materials” list provided to them. I stated that the preamble for the course when I logged in clearly stated that those materials were required. They said “too bad”, if it wasn’t on their list, their hands were tied. I E-mailed the instructor and she verified that those materials were needed to complete the course work. I E-mailed the Director of Financial Assistance and that person was of no assistance at all. Basically I had started and failed the class three times. Since the school has to return the monies for incomplete courses, I had to pay the school for the hours that I did participate in the course. That totaled approx. $1650. dollars. I decided that because the school was so unprofessional, I did not wish to continue with them.. Several months later, Sallie Mae contacted me saying I owed them $3800. They told me that the school had not returned the money for the classes that I was not going to take. When I talked to the school, they just gave me the runaround. They would refer it to accounting and get back to me. No one ever got back to me, no one would respond to my repeated phone calls and E-mails. I know I can apply to have the loan forgiven because the school did not provide the services for which the loan was given, however, they still have the Government’s money. As a taxpayer, I found this appalling. It finally dawned on me that only option for me was to do all I could to discredit the school and prevent them from being eligible for student loans.

Thieves - Art Institute of Pittsburgh Online

In 2007, I was laid off. I was looking for a class online to teach me Autocad, to enhance my marketability. No one would offer this course as a stand-alone class. I ended up enrolling with The Art Institute of Pittsburgh Online. They helped me apply for and get a loan from Sallie Mae. There was a computer skills class required before they would enroll me in the courses with which I was interested. The first time I started the course, they were unable to provide me with study materials in time. I dropped that course and re-enrolled the following quarter. This time When I contacted the book store to get my materials, they told me that they would cost $300. I responded that I was on a student loan program and the materials should be on a voucher that the loan paid for.. Their response was that those materials could not be on a voucher because they were not on the “required materials” list provided to them. I stated that the preamble for the course when I logged in clearly stated that those materials were required. They said “too bad”, if it wasn’t on their list, their hands were tied. I E-mailed the instructor and she verified that those materials were needed to complete the course work. I E-mailed the Director of Financial Assistance and that person was of no assistance at all. Basically I had started and failed the class three times. Since the school has to return the monies for incomplete courses, I had to pay the school for the hours that I did participate in the course. That totaled approx. $1650. dollars. I decided that because the school was so unprofessional, I did not wish to continue with them.. Several months later, Sallie Mae contacted me saying I owed them $3800. They told me that the school had not returned the money for the classes that I was not going to take. When I talked to the school, they just gave me the runaround. They would refer it to accounting and get back to me. No one ever got back to me, no one would respond to my repeated phone calls and E-mails. I know I can apply to have the loan forgiven because the school did not provide the services for which the loan was given, however, they still have the Government’s money. As a taxpayer, I found this appalling. It finally dawned on me that only option for me was to do all I could to discredit the school and prevent them from being eligible for student loans.