This is a very sensitive subject for me, however I am looking for opinions from the tech community on it.. This past year has been screwing me left and right financially. I'll let you all in on what has happened:

A year ago, I caught 2 of my landlord's employees searching my apartment when I came back early from class. One was going through boxes in my roommate's room, and the other was looking through my kitchen's cabinets. They refused to tell me why they were doing this, and they handed me an eviction notice and left. I would have called the police right then, but I didn't have a phone so the two got away. A lot of threats later, it turned out that my roommate's rent checks were bouncing. He high tailed and ran taking a lot of my money with him, and I was forced to leave as well because I wouldn't have been able to pay his rent and mine. I was not going to live in an apartment where the landlord will conduct random and illegal searches. The rentals company later sued me for more than 5 grand in his lost rent, and all of the rent that I didn't pay after leaving the apartment until the end of the lease (a year's worth). My argument was that I had a right to leave because they conducted an illegal search, which is a direct violation of the lease, and that I was 17 when I signed the lease. They agreed with me in court that they conducted the search, but the judge ruled in their favor because he felt the rental company should have a right to search their apartment no matter what the lease says. I now owe more than 5 grand to them.

I do have quite a bit of money saved up, so that only bothered me a little bit. However, the plot thickens.. I went to check my college grades online a few days ago. I got a message saying that I wasn't taking any classes. It told me that I had an outstanding balance. I applied for a student loan at the start of the semester, and I made sure that I signed everything. I had made sure that Parkland got its money (I do have receipts and balance statements confirming that I owe them no money). But apparently they had a problem with the loan, and are claiming that I never signed that 'last piece of paper'. I can't apply for the loan now, and I have to pay the amount out of my pocket *now* if I want to graduate at the end of this semester, and have all the 19 credit hours I'm taking actually count. More than 2 grand.

Now, normally I would just kill myself. But, I got a full-time job offer from a major university to do what I love to do (i.e. program), with people who I really want to work with (i.e. good programmers). I don't want to screw up that situation in the least bit. But, I am so screwed as far as debt goes that it seems like the only way I can possibly manage to get through is to file bankruptcy. I have no idea how this will affect me, or my chances of getting a job and a place to leave at that University. I refuse to file for bankruptcy if it is going to screw over my chances of getting hired there. Can I get some comments or suggestions from you all on what I should do. I would really, really appreciate it.

-Fredric