(open-access) Dear student loan recipient: You can do this. I hope this guide helps.

A ‘live’ resource updated periodically with more information, tips, resources, and news related to student borrowing. I will never paywall this article and hope that you share it widely.

Getting through college alone feels like a maze. Adding financing it to that process only makes it more complex. DALL E generated from article title.

This guide covers: my experiences so far, a list of tips/lessons/suggestions, a glossary of concepts relevant to student lending, and provides a very long list of external resources at the end.

If you have landed here, it probably means you are considering or have already received some kind of student loan. I want to clearly state that I am not a financial aid expert or think that any of the advice here should be taken as anything more than it is: things I have learned along the way that may or may not apply to your situation.

I’m currently still navigating the student loan process in my efforts to work towards public service loan forgiveness. 18 years out from taking my first student loan, there are a lot of things I would do differently but would still argue that these loans can be life changing.

I have taken public/private loans, deferments, consolidated loans, switched payment plans, certified employers for public service, and navigated payments through countless student loan servicer sites (i.e. who handles the loan for the government).

I was living with my mom paycheck to paycheck when I got into Virginia Tech. Out of state tuition was roughly 36k but I had been waitlisted at my other local school of interest. At the time, I didn’t know about ‘core curriculum’ and that most intro classes can be taken for a fraction of the price at your local community college and then transferred over. Going to Tech was a long held dream and, after filling out FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid), I qualified for some grants, but mostly federal loans that would allow me to go to VT.

It meant I could click accept, share the news with my family, and become what my family always wanted me to be — what I wanted to be.

I didn’t calculate or at least think much at 17 wise years of age that 4 years of classes at 36k/year (not to mention with interest accumulating while deferred for 9 years of grad school) would easily put me over the 150k mark. I’m not sure what I would have done if I had that information at 17 years old, but I doubt I would have given up my opportunity to go to my dream school.

I graduated in 4 years and attended a fully funded MA program at VT. At the time, the best option (or the easiest option at least) was to defer the loans till graduation. Once I decided to pursue a career in academia, I deferred my undergraduate loans during my doctorate as well. Thankfully, most doctoral programs are fully funded and offer a decent stipend to live on.

Knowing what I know now, I should have entered an income driven payment plan (some payments can be zero) and tried to use my teaching at South Carolina to count progress towards my student loan forgiveness. I’ll talk about the complexities of that more later but you have to be listed as a full time employee meaning most graduate assistantships do not qualify. For those staying in school full time, student enrollment based deferment is a great option.

Fast forward to now: I’m working my dream job as a professor at Mount St. Mary’s University and our family just purchased our first home. It was a long journey here with a lot of doubt. I hope this resource can reduce that doubt for at least one person and help give them the confidence to access the education they deserve — aware of common pitfalls inherent to student lending.

Lessons learned so far

Take summer classes at a local community college. This will reduce cost and get you ahead of track for graduation.

Deferment is not always the best option. If your monthly payment would be manageable on an income driven plan (new plans cap payments significantly lower than before), go ahead and make payments to keep interest down.

Consolidation is easy and often helps. This took me all of 10 minutes online. Afterwards, I one interest rate averaged from the loans added and one monthly payment that I could count towards public service forgiveness (120 payments on time or 10 years of repayment).

Private loans might be easier to get at first, but avoid them if you can. I’m not going to single out any lenders here but I experienced some really aggressive collection tactics for loans that were quite small in the grand scheme of things.

Get a work-study position if you can. This will decrease the extra amount of loans you need to take for room and board. Work study positions are also great for student schedules and can help you develop professional skills and experience while getting through college. I found one that let me tutor and develop teaching skills, another that let me learn fundraising skills, and became a supervisor at both organizations. I wouldn’t have been able to eat without those jobs.

Shop your payment plans early and often. There are a lot of payment plans. If you aren’t working towards forgiveness, you might want a plan that maximizes your payment to reduce interest and the length of repayment. You can provide your info and shop plans in minutes now. This was not the case 17 or so years ago.

Familiarize yourself with everything on your servicer site. One day, when you go to buy something, you will likely have to provide a documentation of student loan balance and payment. Some websites are downright awful so know where to find tax forms and other documents early on.

You can buy a home with a lot of student debt, but it’s definitely more complicated. See this guide. Approached with intention, my experience would have been completely different but even with them, I was able to buy my dream car and a get a home. If you take a more proactive approach, you can have your loans payed off in a matter of a 2–3 years.

I will add more tips here as they come to mind.

A glossary for student lending

APR (Annual Percentage Rate): The annual rate charged for borrowing or earned through an investment, which includes any fees or additional costs associated with the transaction.

Capitalization: The addition of unpaid interest to the principal balance of a loan, which increases the total amount owed.

Consolidation: Combining multiple loans into one single loan with a fixed interest rate based on the average of the rates on the existing loans.

Cosigner: A person who agrees to take responsibility for repaying a loan if the primary borrower does not pay.

Credit Score: A number based on a level analysis of a person’s credit files, to represent the creditworthiness of an individual.

Deferment: A temporary postponement of payment on a loan that is allowed under certain conditions and during which interest generally does not accrue on subsidized loans.

Default: Failure to repay a loan according to the terms agreed to in the signed promissory note. For most federal loans, default occurs when a payment is more than 270 days overdue.

Forbearance: A period during which your monthly loan payments are temporarily suspended or reduced, but interest continues to accrue.

Grace Period: A set period after graduation, leaving school, or dropping below half-time enrollment during which a borrower is not required to make loan payments.

Hardship: Financial or personal circumstances that make it difficult to meet the obligations of loan repayment.

Income-Based Repayment (IBR): A repayment plan featuring monthly payments that are generally equal to 10% or 15% of your discretionary income, but never more than you would have paid under the Standard Repayment Plan.

Interest: The cost of borrowing money, typically a percentage of the principal loan amount.

Origination Fee: A fee charged by a lender on entering into a loan agreement to cover the cost of processing the loan.

Private Lender: Non-governmental banks or financial institutions that issue loans. Private loans may have terms and conditions that are less favorable than those of public loans.

PSLF (Public Service Loan Forgiveness): A program that forgives the remaining balance on Direct Loans after the borrower has made 120 qualifying monthly payments under a qualifying repayment plan while working full-time for a qualifying employer.

Public Lender: Government or government-affiliated entities that provide loans, typically with terms that are more favorable than private loans.

Refinancing: Obtaining a new loan to pay off an existing one, typically to reduce interest rates or monthly payment amounts.

Repayment Plan: The terms by which a borrower agrees to pay back a loan, including the timing, amount, and duration of payments.

Rollover: A process of transferring the debt from one loan into a new loan, often used as part of refinancing or consolidation.

Servicer: A company that manages student loan repayment on behalf of the lender.

Subsidized Loan: A federal student loan for which the government pays the interest while the borrower is in school, during the grace period, or during authorized periods of deferment.

Unsubsidized Loan: A federal student loan that requires the borrower to pay interest from the time the loan is disbursed until it is paid in full.

Variable Interest Rate: An interest rate on a loan or security that fluctuates over time because it is based on an underlying benchmark interest rate or index that changes periodically.

A really long list of resources (50 and counting)

1. Federal Student Aid: https://studentaid.gov/
2. Student Loan Borrower Assistance: https://www.studentloanborrowerassistance.org/
3. The Institute for College Access & Success: https://ticas.org/
4. National Consumer Law Center — Student Loan Borrower Assistance: https://www.nclc.org/issues/student-loans.html
5. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — Paying for College: https://www.consumerfinance.gov/paying-for-college/
6. Student Loans — Gov.uk: https://www.gov.uk/student-finance
7. FinAid — The SmartStudent Guide to Financial Aid: http://www.finaid.org/
8. Student Loan Hero: https://studentloanhero.com/
9. Federal Trade Commission — Consumer Information on Student Loans: https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/1028-student-loans
10. U.S. Department of Education: https://www.ed.gov/
11. Student Debt Crisis: https://studentdebtcrisis.org/
12. Student Finance — Government of Canada: https://www.canada.ca/en/services/benefits/education/student-aid.html
13. Student Finance Wales: https://www.studentfinancewales.co.uk/
14. Student Finance NI: http://www.studentfinanceni.co.uk/
15. The Student Loan Trust Fund: https://www.sltfghana.org/
16. Saving for College: https://www.savingforcollege.com/
17. Edvisors: https://www.edvisors.com/
18. Student Finance Australia: https://www.studyassist.gov.au/
19. The College Investor: https://thecollegeinvestor.com/
20. Smart About Money — Paying Off Student Loans: https://www.smartaboutmoney.org/Topics/Education-and-Training/Paying-Off-Student-Loans
21. NerdWallet — Student Loans: https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/loans/student-loans/
22. Education Loan Finance: https://www.elfi.com/
23. Federal Student Aid — Repayment Estimator: https://studentaid.gov/loan-simulator/
24. CommonBond — Student Loan Refinance and Personal Loans: https://www.commonbond.co/
25. SoFi — Student Loan Refinancing: https://www.sofi.com/refinance-student-loan/
26. LendEDU — Compare Student Loan Rates: https://lendedu.com/
27. American Student Assistance: https://www.asa.org/
28. Mapping Your Future: https://mappingyourfuture.org/
29. Student Loan Planner: https://www.studentloanplanner.com/
30. Student Loans Guy: https://www.studentloansguy.com/
31. Education Loan Finance — Student Loan Consolidation and Refinancing: https://www.elfi.com/
32. Citizens Bank — Student Loan Refinancing: https://www.citizensbank.com/student-lending/overview.aspx
33. Discover Student Loans: https://www.discover.com/student-loans/
34. Sallie Mae — Private Student Loans: https://www.salliemae.com/
35. Student Loans of North Dakota: https://www.studentloansnd.com/
36. Rhode Island Student Loan Authority: https://www.risla.com/
37. Iowa Student Loan: https://www.iowastudentloan.org/
38. Earnest — Student Loan Refinancing: https://www.earnest.com/
39. Student Finance Direct: https://www.studentfinancedirect.co.uk/
40. College Ave Student Loans: https://www.collegeavestudentloans.com/
41. Student Finance England: https://www.gov.uk/student-finance-register-login
42. Student Finance Services: https://www.gov.uk/contact-student-finance-england
43. Mohela: https://www.mohela.com/
44. Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation: https://mygreatlakes.org/
45. Navient: https://navient.com/
46. Nelnet: https://www.nelnet.com/welcome
47. Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency (PHEAA): https://www.pheaa.org/
48. Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board: http://www.thecb.state.tx.us/
49. Student Loan Forgiveness for Public Service Workers: https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/public-service
50. Income-Driven Repayment Plans for Federal Student Loans: https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/repayment/plans/income-driven