I commented this in a different spot, but I'll say it again.

What ever school you're taking classes from should have a career consoler/advisor of some sort. Those people are there to help you, and some are better at it than others - if the first person doesn't help much, try someone else. (They are also paid to keep in you in school no matter what, so if you do consider taking a break - maybe leave that part out)

(Typcall me took one quick last note and turned into an essay - sorry)

One last note, No matter what happens:

get a job to pay off student debt you may have.

I'm going to assume for a minute your in America's crap "system" to extract as much money from young adults as possible.

Don't get caught up in late fees, loan consolidation schemes, debt forbearance, "pay later" crap - pay at least the minimum every month.

Its okay to have a random job fresh out of collage for a while, being able to hold a job is a good resume builder and for references. The main thing is to keep a look out for new opportinies.

If you can pay extra, pay into the loans with highest cost - highest intrest loans first. Pay as much extra as you can, while still building a savings. ***

Once you start paying off individual loans, the monthly cost will drop - if needed paying off the lowest balance ones is good to get montly lower. But only for the sort term, the highest intrest loans will end up costing more in the future if you let the intrest build up.

I recommend keeping a 6 month buffer/oh shit money, incase you lose your job or your car implodes - have 6 month of funds to cover the essentials. I know its not easy, especially starting out, it might a take a few years to get there, but in my opinion, building up a financial pillow is going to be one of the best thing you can do for your adult self.

Personal story time, fresh out of collage I worked for 3 years out of collage doing maintance work for a facorty, I didn't really enjoy it, but learned a lot. The pay was okay, enough to pay the loan minimums and get by. Once I had a comfortable financial buffer, I started looking for work in my field of interest. Applied to a few places and eventually got hired, pay was better but I still lived like I was getting the "okay" pay - all the extra got dumped into loans (and some into savings). A few years later, I was student debt free and refocued that spending into savings for a house.

***That advice is a genralization - do the math to figure out what works out the best.

Let's say I have four 10-year loans, I don't remember how often/if they were compounded, but I went with compounded monthly for intrest calculation - I also rounded to nearest hundred) (The calculations also don't account for the principle going down over time with the minimum payments)

• $8000 at 5%
• $5000 at 5%
• $7000 at 4%
• $10,000 at 2%
• The $8000 loan at 5% intrest ends up costing an extra $5200 in intrest.
• The $5000 loan at 5%, ends up costing $3200 in intrest
• The $7000 loan at 4% is $3400 intrest.
• And the $10000 at 2% is $2100.

While temping to start with lowest $5k because its easy, you'll just pay that in the 8k's intrest. You might also want to pay the big $10k one to make less daunting, but waiting to pay that will actually save the most long term. (You'll still have the mimniums to pay on each loan - always always pay the minimumns, set up auto pay if you can and let it do its thing)

When paying extra you want to pay whatever loan is going to cost the highest in intrest. (Recalculated every time you pay extra). In this case, start with 8k loan until the intrest in lower that $3400, which happens to be when the principle is down to 5k. At that point pay the $7 loan until intrest lower than $3200, which doesn't take much with $6.5k dropping it $3200. From here, depending on how much you can put in, I'd just work on getting rid of them one at a time to get the monthly cost down (reducing how much you need to pay each month). When I started my monthly was $300+, by the time I finished it was $50

Keep going until everything is $0.

Here's another option you may get: Let's say I consolidate them all for a lower monthly bill at a 4% intrest rate and don't pay a dime over the minimum for an extended 15 years. That sounds good right?

Indivually the total interest for 10 years was about $13,900. Total cost $43,000.

$30,000 at 4% over 15 years = $24,600. A 30k loan ends costing $54,600

A good compound deal (10 year loan, componded monthly) that is sub $13.9k is $30,000, would be a 3.5% intrest rate, making the total instrest $12,550.

However, I belive consolidating also takes away some of options for loan forgiveness, pausing, and other aid provided by the govnment loans vs. a private loan.

Always do the math, and read the fine print.

Also find a proper loan calculator to do the math better then I did with a basic intrest calculator....I'm sure if this was Reddit, someone would correct all my the math in the comments and call me a moron. That beging said, I am just bloke on the internetxwith too much free time sharing what worked for him, not a fincial expert who knows anything about your situation.