As college seniors prepare to graduate and attend financial aid exit interviews, SimpleTuition would like to remind students not graduating to take stock of their financial situation at the end of this and every school year. We’ve heard from recent graduates that were both shocked and nervous upon seeing the entire amount they’d actually borrowed and have to repay.
How to Manage Your Student Loan Debt
Currently, two-thirds of college students take out student loans and the average debt at graduation is $23,000. Most college students say the debt doesn’t seem real until they graduate. Are you prepared?
- Gather the Loan Details of the Loans You’ve Borrowed Each Year - At the end of each school year, you should pull together the loan details for loans you borrowed, ie: loan servicer, contact info, total loan amount, interest rates and first due dates.
- Keep a Spreadsheet of All Student Debt and Update it Yearly - Once you have completed step one, above, pull all of this information together into a spreadsheet and keep track of it on an annual basis.
- Keep all of Your Lender Information Together and Secure. You must make payments on your loans even if you don’t receive an invoice or coupon book, so be sure you have the pertinent repayment dates and amounts in a safe place.
- Notify Your Loan Servicer When: you graduate; withdraw from school; drop below half time status; change your name, address, email or phone number; or transfer to another school.
2 Comments
My daughter just graduated from college. The Financial Aid Adviser at her university was very helpful in making sure she knew what she owed and when. She took out Stafford and Perkins loans. The payments do not start until 6 and 9 months after graduation. Thank you for your tips!
This is an extremely organized and well put together site. It is loaded with valuable information. Thank you!
\