Borrower Defense Story: Anxiety & Interest

[Editor's note: This is the second story in a series about student loan debt and the moral necessity of Borrower Defense to Repayment. The first post is here.] 

My name is KH and I'm from Florida. My student debt crisis is very personal. I attended Kaplan University Online in 2008 while on bed rest after an accident. My family and I were extremely poor and so the idea of a college education to support my growing family was something that was appealing to me. 

My boyfriend at the time was in the agricultural field and only worked 4 or 5 months out of the year. We were so poor that even unmarried with a child he qualified to be on my SNAP and Medicaid applications. 

Once I made the call to Kaplan I was told that a degree would take us out of poverty, and we could live happily ever after. I was promised job placement and training for my future job. None of these things happened. I signed documents that indicated I was low income which allowed Kaplan to request more funding from FAFSA. 

Then the housing market crash of 2008 happened, and I switched majors to clinical psychology (I was told I would be in the therapeutic field once complete). In 2010 I had a phone call that made me look up the difference between FOR profit and nonprofit schools. Realizing I made a mistake, I switched schools to Lynn University which is a private (expensive) nonprofit. They were the only school that would take all of my credits from Kaplan. 

Fast forward to today, I am currently waiting to attend Southeastern Oklahoma State University to complete a Master's degree in School Counseling. 

I have received two different notifications from Mohela, my student loan servicer. The first indicates that I'm in-school deferment but it ends two weeks after I start class. Then my payment plans. There are two plans, one is for 700.00+ dollars and the other for 800.00+ dollars. One of my paychecks is 1700.00. There is no way I can survive with 1/2 my pay. 

I'm in the Borrower's Defense program because of the mismanagement by Kaplan. I also currently have multiple documents with multiple dates for repayment. There is no correct document that indicates what, when, or how I'm supposed to navigate this. Let me also state, the compounding interest is what makes this incredibly hard. I will be paying over 350,000 dollars from 120,000 in loans. 

This is criminal. Period.