It's my understanding that generally - and almost always student loans are non discharged under Chapter 7 Bankruptcy. Unfortunately, I think I could have done better by getting another bankruptcy attorney than the one I hired. I have an odd loan for $4000 that was given to me by PSU - it came from one of their own private funds. I don't think it was specifically for "Tuition" but more for surrounding expenses of living/college. They were included in my petition, but I think my attorney should have put them with the generally unsecured creditors. Any other ideas about how I could seek relief or offset what I owe in normal PHEAA/US Dept. of Education Loans would be great!
The use of funds doesn't necessarily determine if the loan was a student loan. Many student loans get used to pay living expenses and the loan does not lose its status as a student loan.
How you list the loan on the bankruptcy petition does not affect the loans dischargeability. To discharge a student loan, in any context, the debtor must file an adversary proceeding. As a practice pointer, student loans get listed on Schedule F (general unsecured) unless the loan has been somehow secured (e.g. reduced to judgment and filed as a lien).
If the debt wasn't left off your schedules intentionally or fraudulently then you might be able to reopen the case and amend the schedules to list them. Sometimes creditors are just overlooked and there are ways to fix that. You may still want to run the situation by someone with more experience to decide if it is worth the cost of reopening and hiring an attorney to do the amendments. I'm sure there will also be some follow up work and letters between the attorney and the school.
