<prompt> Human: Like many others in my generation, the only way to afford rising tuition costs was to take on debt to pay for an education, despite working and saving full time in the summer. My parents helped me a little, but I paid for roughly 85 of my college. In the process I had to borrow 25,000 in Federal Loans to fund my education. I graduated with a B.S. degree in Petroleum Geology and minors in oceanography and mathematics from a decent state school Texas AM. I have been offered a job doing seismic interpretation for 62,000 starting benefits, but I would like to go to graduate school and get my M.S. degree in geology or geophysics. To get farther in my field a graduate degree is required. I would take two years off to complete it, but usually it is fully funded if research or TA duties are taken on. I feel like it would be easy to stay in school now and finish at 23 instead of working and going back. What the hell should I do? Any advice?What can I do to escape this debt and pay it off relatively quickly. Student loan debt is rather depressing, I wont feel free or in control until I can pay them off. Will I be screwed financially for the rest of my life because I am already 25,000 in the hole at 21?  <response>: 25k for a job paying more than twice that a year? I saw the title and expected another of those 90k for a worthless private school degree in bullshitology sob stories.If youre worried, live in a trailer or comparable shithole for a year and put half your income in the loans. Youre just fine, kid. Go to grad school. 