The grace period
Federal loans give you about six months after you leave before payments start — use it to find your servicer, choose a plan, and set up autopay (often a small interest-rate discount). Unsubsidized interest still accrues during grace.
If money is tight at repayment
An income-driven plan can set the payment as low as $0 based on your income, keeping the loan out of default. Default is the outcome to avoid at all costs — it wrecks credit and adds collection fees. The servicer, not a paid "debt relief" company, is who you call.
In and around Porter Falls
The Porter Student Help Desk in Founders Union 118 is the single place to start when it is not obvious which office owns a question.
The practical details
Required: Once, online, about 30 minutes, when you leave or drop below half-time enrollment. Covers: Your total balance, your loan servicer, the grace period, repayment plans (standard, graduated, income-driven), deferment and forbearance, and how to avoid default. Do right after: Log in to your servicer, confirm your contact info, and pick a repayment plan before the first bill. Anything time-sensitive — an accommodation, a booking, a deadline — is worth confirming directly before you rely on it, because the specifics here can change from term to term.
If you have a question
The office behind this is Porter Student Help Desk (Founders Union, Room 118). Call (715) 555–0120 or email help@uwporterfalls.edu during the fall and spring terms, or sign in to MyPorter to send a message or book a time. If it turns out another office owns the question, they will route it rather than send you back to the start.
Fictional information
UW–Porter Falls is a work of parody. Every office, person, building, phone number and statistic on this page is invented; nothing here describes a real institution or a service you can actually contact.