Thirteen years ago, Melanie Lockert, now age 38, thought she wanted to become a university theater professor. She was thrilled to start her Ph.D. journey in performance studies at New York University. Midway through, however, she realized that she did not want to work in academia but preferred nonprofit art education. After graduating with a master’s degree in theater performance, she searched for a job in art education in New York City. With the Great Recession of the late 2000s in full swing, however, she couldn’t find work.
By 2012 her undergraduate and master’s degree loans totaled $81,000, with a $900 monthly payment. After briefly going on food stamps, depleting her savings, sharing a one-room apartment with her partner in Portland, Ore. and hustling for temp work that paid around $10 to $12 an hour, she still struggled to satisfy her required monthly payments. “I felt completely trapped by my debt,” Lockert says.
Her anxiety surrounding her debt mounted. Lockert felt shame for going to “a fancy private school” and not being able to secure full-time employment. In 2013 she went into a deep depression. Lockert woke up every morning with a sense of dread for the day ahead. “I had graduated from N.Y.U., one of the most prestigious schools in the country, and I couldn’t find a full-time job to pay it back. I felt like my debt was mocking me,” she says.
Lockert says that students such as herself are told an untrue narrative: if you work hard in school, you’ll be able to...
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