80k degree from the art institute, went there before their cheesy advertising blew up as it was right next door to a place I was trying to get a job at but failed. Went in for free cookies at the open house, was shown charts of the extremely high job placement from their graduates and now its been 8 years, still have all the same debt (can only cover interest / living expenses / helping family), working jobs completely unrelated to my degree as it proved shortly after graduation to be worthless.
Fuck me for being a retarded 18 year old making one bad decision after seeing the "proof" of their high job placement records. Worked my ass off too, top of the class, all perfect grades, worked part time job to support myself. If I only had a redo, I would have just gone to community collage and worked more and been far better off. I've learned far more taking coursera.org classes for free over the years on the side.
The Art Institute truly is false advertising. I can relate to people in my graduation generation as there was little info about it online, but nowadays there isn't much excuse with how internet savvy teenagers are. I've always wanted to back to a real school to get a solid degree that would mean something to employers/friends/newly met people. The common theme among me telling anyone I went there is, "oh" or "i'm sorry", it's never anything but a shameful experience that has drastically hurt my confidence. Most the time I just avoid telling people at all cost, which is extremely different and requires lots of distractions when the topic is brought up.
Oh and don't even get me started on the depression / anxiety it gave me once I realized all this. I'm an extremely hard worker and I COULD have made it into any industry if I had the time/minimal financial support back then, but the crushing debt, bills, and family emergencies forced me into taking unrelated jobs that high school drop outs could get. Also didn't help I graduated into the 2008 depression. This was also in Los Angeles. I had huge gaps of unemployment due to the mental shame of the value of my degree when mental issues got the best of me with the looming threat of never being able to pay off the loans. Without moving back in with my parents and having family / friends loan me more money to cover my loan payments, I would have been homeless by now. Not quite the future that was projected me day one and the lies are now beyond obvious with what was said.
TLDR: The Art Institute was the worst decision of my life, hands down. And that's coming from someone who was always top of the class and relentlessly put in every effort possible to succeed but was crushed by the debt and forced into other low paying industries as employers saw no value in the degree, even with many internships completed.
P.S. If anyone has any advice they want to comment or PM me on how to forgive these loans, I'd greatly appreciate it as obviously I don't have the education to stack the odds in my favor to win at it alone! Thanks in advance!