KW Help

KW - Help
I am divorced mom who was looking to get a raise and a promotion at work. I enrolled in the Business Administration course at KW in 2003.

After easily completing 2 or 3 classes I got into financial trouble. I have a loan through Sallie Mae. I found out that because it is a government loan it can not be forgiven in a bankruptcy.

Next, I contacted KW and told them I could no longer afford to complete my courses. I was told "sorry" it has to be finished. No matter how long it takes I will be charged $100 per month indefinetly until all courses are completed. Currently, I can't even afford the textbook for the next class let alone the Sallie Mae payment.

After reading all of the threads on this and other web sites, I see that even if I get a degree from KW it doesn't really mean anything anyway. I don't know what to do now. Any suggestions?

 

Talk to a lawyer. You might not want to spent $100 or so for an opinion, but in the long run it might be very much worth your while.

 

Thank you, but I did talk to my bankruptcy attorney and she said because it is government loan it cannot be discharged. After searching on the internet, I found that unless you die or can prove severe financial hardship Sallie Mae loans can't be discharged.

 

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Actually, the information that your lawyer gave to you may be wrong. It's true that a financial aid (FAFSA and government backed loans i.e. Federal Stafford Loan, and Government Loans) are not subject to bankruptcy. However, Kennedy-Western is not an accredited school, and the loans that you've got are not federally backed as far as I can tell, so this may be subject to bankruptcy. The loans that Sallie Mae offers that you qualified for were training related from what it sounds like. So, I'd check again, and makes sure that this is the situation. The school doesn't necessarily have to be accredited in order to receive a federally government backed loan, but as for what you've mentioned, it doesn't sound like that'd be a government backed loan. It'll no matter what have an adverse effect on your credit, but this shouldn't be under the same guidelines as if you took out a student loan that was government backed (Stafford, etc).

 

I don't know how much was disbursed or anything like that... but I would call a Sallie Mae rep and find out as much information as you can about your loan. You could tell them that you want to use the loan amount for education, just not now at the present time, and not at Kennedy Western, and how can they work with you to defer/reduce payments. That way you will know what you're looking at in terms of options and penalties.

Are KW billing you on a monthly basis, or did you give them a lump sum of money? If they're billing you on a credit card I would stop paying them right away. Even if you signed a contract that said you would send them a certain amount of money, defaulting directly to them would be less serious than defaulting on a student loan.

 

What has been posted elsewhere on DegreeInfo indicates that after the Senate hearings that publicly exposed KWU as a degree mill, a number of graduates got lawyers to sue KWU. (Note that KWU had been publicly called a diploma mill by many before the Senate hearings.) Apparently KWU settled by giving some refunds to these alumni that had secured legal assistance.