The loan clock
Most federal student loans give you six months after graduation before the first payment is due. Interest keeps accruing during that time on unsubsidized loans, so the balance you begin repaying is larger than the amount you borrowed. In the first month, log in to the federal student aid site, find out which servicer holds your loans, and update your address, phone and a permanent email. Then use the site's loan simulator to compare the standard fixed payment with the income-driven plans. If you choose nothing, you are placed on the standard plan. Private loans keep their own terms, and you have to ask each lender what they are.
Things that expire at commencement
- Your student health plan usually ends within weeks of graduation, and losing it opens an enrollment window of thirty to sixty days, depending on the new plan.
- Your school email account may be closed within a year, so move every login that depends on it and forward the mail now.
- Your career office usually does not expire, since most serve alumni for free, and few graduates ever ask.
Order two official transcripts while you still know how the registrar's system works.
A job search with office hours
A first professional search commonly takes three to six months, and that is a normal figure rather than a verdict. Work it like a part-time job of twenty hours a week with a fixed start time. Tailored applications and conversations with people already in the field outperform mass applications by a wide margin. Take interim work without embarrassment, because it pays the bills and a gap explains itself less well than a job does.
If you move home
Moving back in with family is common and financially sensible, and it works best with terms agreed in the first week. Settle what you contribute, which chores are yours and a rough date for leaving. Save the rent you are not paying, so that the stay ends with a deposit and three months of expenses in the bank rather than a newer phone.
The dip
The months after graduation are often flat. The structure, the friends within walking distance and the clear measure of progress all vanish in one weekend. Build a small routine, which can be exercise, a standing call with a friend and a regular bedtime, and judge the period after six months and not after six weeks.
Tip Enroll in autopay when loan repayment starts, since federal servicers take a quarter of a percentage point off the interest rate for it.
