Amanda Lynn Tully, who earned a master’s degree in Art History, Criticism and Conservation from an Oregon university in 2017, has told the New York Times she left the United States for Prague and does not plan to return in order to avoid repaying roughly $65,000 in federal student loans. Her case featured in the Times’ wider investigation into a record number of borrowers who have defaulted on student debt and then left the country.
Tully said she moved to Prague less than a year after graduating, completed an internship there and subsequently stopped making payments. According to the New York Times account, she has not made any loan payments in more than seven years and is classified as a loan defaulter. She described the decision to remain abroad as final, telling the paper she would never go back to the U.S.
At the time she departed, Tully was on an income-based repayment plan that calculated her monthly obligation at about $60. She said that even that small payment was a “psychological burden,” adding: “The payments weren’t even paying off the interest, so it was frustrating.” Income-driven plans can result in modest monthly payments and, after two decades of qualifying payments, remaining balances may be forgiven; the Times story used Tully’s situation to illustrate how such programs can still leave borrowers feeling trapped.
Public reaction to Tully’s choice has been sharply divided. Social media users criticized her for walking away from the debt, with some pointing to photographs that accompanied the Times profile — one commenter noted she appeared to be wearing designer headphones — and questioned the optics of avoiding a $60 monthly obligation while displaying other signs of discretionary spending. “You borrowed the money. You spent it on a useless degree. Pay it back or stop complaining,” another user wrote.
Tully’s LinkedIn profile, cited in the Times story, shows she has been working as an e‑learning content developer since 2019. The profile also indicates that for the first two years after leaving the U.S. she was a self-employed English language teacher in the Czech Republic, suggesting she moved into more stable online work after initially freelancing.
The New York Times report placed Tully’s story in the context of a broader trend of rising defaults and borrowers relocating overseas to escape repayment obligations, drawing attention to the limits of current repayment structures for graduates in lower-paying fields. Advocates for borrowers have argued such examples underscore the psychological as well as financial strain of student debt, while critics say individuals are responsible for repaying loans taken out for their education. Tully’s decision and the reaction to it highlight the tensions at the center of ongoing debates over loan policy, forgiveness and the long-term impacts of graduate-level debt.