But dti doesn't directly calculate into credit score. And student loans count as income for housing purposes as it's a legal way to use student loans. Apartments don't generally consider dti as it's more a use for lending purposes. They look at history of payments, bankruptcies, basically financial integrity. In this area, with so many students, colleges, and apartments, student loans wouldn't be a negative except for the most premium apartments, which I'm sure OP isn't pursuing.

Ahh, the shadow credit report. So they develop a tenant "profile" of a bunch of personal and financial details and run it through algorithms for a computer to decide if the tenant is high risk or not. That screening tool has even less regulatory oversight than credit scores, and people and advocacy groups have raised concerns that these secret screening methods are a way to bypass equal housing rights and discriminate against otherwise acceptable candidates. For your sake, I hope it's the screening tool basing it off your student loans, while still a poorly applied derogatory remark on your tenant likelihood, and not some other BS discrimination.