You can use your college degree as work history and your most recent paystub as qualifying income.

So it can be a good lesson for us to learn

So, I am not sure how I would pursue damages and unpaid (2 months rent) if I wanted to.In hind site I should have kicked them out, but I didn't - lesson learnt.  

I would like to converse with the owner on cost, process, hassle, lessons learned, etc but only the agent is at the open house.  

The truth is, you've been fortunate and haven't had to deal with a difficult tenant until now, so you haven't learned the hard lessons and you failed to prepare for the inevitable nonsense that landlords have to deal with.The law gives you 30 days to deal with the deposit, but you chose to wait and hope the problem would go away.

I love college students because they are not nearly as picky as most families. 

Very sad but I've learned my lesson.

It's from lessons learned in '00 & '08. 

@Michael JudgeI was an entrepreneur before and after college.

Lesson learned was getting a test it was cheap, feeling better knowing it was safe before we rented it out was better still.This happened prior to our closing on the deal, so slightly different situation.