To Whom It May Concern,
I am writing this letter to let you know about borrowers who have been hurt in taking out Student Loans to go to college and make better lives for ourselves. I am a victim myself. I went to The Art Institute of Pittsburgh (Online Division) from July 2004 - March 2007. I graduated from there with my Associates Degree in Graphic Design and to this day, I still have not found any work in my field due to the economy being so bad. I had to defer my student loans twice because I am a single woman struggling to make it on my own. I waitress and have a lot of expenses to pay for every month. I originally took out a loan for $30,796.69 but after graduation I was told by Sallie Mae that it would be better to consolidate all of my student loans. But they never told me how much interest they were going to charge me. After consolidating all of my loans and having to defer them due to economic hardship, the accrued interest to be capitalized is $1,020.66 making the total principal $31,817.35. Then the estimated amount of interest that they are charging me during repayment is $21,591.89. So the grand total that Sallie Mae says I owe them is $53,409.24! Then I was approved for deferment and then they told me that I will be charged even more interest just for being in deferment. And also I still owe $366.44 to the college I went to and I still don't have my degree in my possession. They will not send it to me until the full balance is paid off. I am just trying to survive with the little money I am making right now.
I did find a website www.studentloanjustice.org and found out that there are millions out there who have also been hurt with taking out these Student Loans. After reading these stories, I think that it is a shame that we American citizens are being taken advantage of this way. All we were trying to do was to make something of ourselves and to better our lives. This is why we decided to go to college. But due to the economy, none of us are working in the fields that we went to school for and we are all responsible for paying back our loans. But why should we have to be charged more than what we borrowed for interest? Why is Sallie Mae doing this to us?
I want to take a stand against this because we are all innocent victims who are crying out for help. Someone needs to do something about this. Any questions regarding this matter, you may contact me at cominalive77@yahoo.com