<prompt> Human: I am going to be a junior this upcoming year at a state University. I have been very lucky and have been receiving scholarships since my sophomore year of college, and I will not have to take out a loan this year or next. I do have plans of going to grad school for a masters program, my parents will not help me pay for this. I took out a unsubsidized staffard loan my freshman year for 5500 dollars and a 6.8 percent interest rate. so far it has collected 568 dollars in interest. By the end of the month I am going to have around 7000 dollars in my bank account. I will be working at least thirsty hours during the school year and I pay for my rent 333 every month. If i were ever in serious financial trouble I think my parents would help me. Since I will soon have enough money, my dad keeps telling me to pay off my loan, which I would love to do. during our winter break we do have a three week study abroad program that would cost about 5000 dollars if were to get no scholarships. This program sounds really awesome and it is relevant to my future interestwhat I want to go to grad school for. I am worried that if I dont pay off my loan now it wont get paid off four many more years and the interest will really start to add up, but I also want to get all I can out of my college experience. does anyone have some wisdom for me?  <response>: I say go abroad, no doubt about it.Im also for being financially responsible, but you likely wont have the chance to go away again. Once you graduate and get a job, there is very likely no chance of you taking 3 weeks to do something like that.I always have regretted not studying abroad in college when I had the chance. I always used the money for some else temporary and said I would do it later. 10 years after college, I am nowhere closer if anything further, in regards to time cash responsibilities to taking a trip similar to what I could have done in college. 