Students reveal college debt horror stories as rich parents pay bribes to get their kids in

Amid revelations of a shocking scam where rich parents paid their children's way into elite universities, stories of the depts of student loan debt taken on by those without the privilege of wealthy families have become all the more poignant.

After Splinter news editor Paul Blest wrote about his own nightmarish experiences dealing with college loans, the website asked readers to send in their own horror stories.

In one, a person from a working-class background who was $78,000 in debt decided to go into the Army to help pay their loans off and wound up with multiple injuries as a result.

"Six years and $60,000.00 in federal assistance for military enlistment later, I’m still $12,000.00 in the student loan hole and really only have some good credit and lifelong back and hip injuries to show for it," the reader wrote. "Really, I’m lucky it’s not worse, considering that the decision put me in the military, which at the time was a sane choice given the alternatives."

It's not hard to see why that reader felt lucky given the other published stories of student loans from hell.

In May 2018, CNBC reported that lawyer Rick Tallini's law school loans quadrupled from $55,000 to $300,000 as he struggled for decades to find work.

"They'll tack this thing to my coffin at this point," Tallini told CNBC.

Persis Yu, the director of the Student Loan Borrower Assistance Project at the National Consumer Law Center, told CNBC that loan debt ballooning in that manner "really does happen all the time."

In a California-focused piece, the Higher Ed Not Debt campaign shared stories of residents in the state struggling to pay off their loans amid soaring costs of living.

One of the testimonials, shared by a woman identified as Janice H., is remarkably similar to Tallini's.

"$300,000 student loan debt from 1990’s," she wrote. "Predatory lending from Sallie Mae & Navient. It is a very long story but this amount was on an original loan that was $50,000. It has been a nightmare but I have all the paperwork from 1990’s and fighting the amount, the payment amounts, the interest rate, the abuse of the collection companies.”

You can read more loan debt horror stories via Splinter and Higher Ed Not Debt.