<prompt> Human: I am on a full tuition scholarship through my university. I have applied for financial aid for every academic year and taken out Direct Subsidized Loans non-interest bearing while enrolled in school. The university has raised the tuition over my 4 year enrollment but has not raised my scholarship, so I have used these loans to cover the difference of what my scholarship no longer covers. I did not need to use the entirety of my loans, so each year I just place the remaining balance in my savings account and let it sit untouched. I acquired full time work during the last 2 years of my degree and have enough saved up to pay off the entirety of my loans outstanding loans the day I graduate in December. I have around 3,000 saved up in addition to the 12,000 saved for the purpose of paying back the loans, and a monthly take home of about 2000 dollars. My expenses are around 1200 a month, and the rest is put towards savings and extracurricular activities. Im pretty good with money in the sense that I have my bills budgeted out about a month in advance, so having the 12,000 leave my account wouldnt leave me without any money. Obviously, there is an argument for keeping it until I have a bigger emergency fund saved up. I also plan to enter a graduate program in 2018, which will require me to take on more loans just sharing that info in cases it changes anyones advice. I am in the application process for graduate school, so the actual tuition cost is unknown. It could vary anywhere between 40-80k, but that doesnt start until August of 2018. I have a relatively high credit score 770 and a lot of that has to do with the age of my loans and the good standing I have with them due to the fact that I havent needed to make payments on them because they are subsidized. Im unsure if paying them off would affect that score, or if that is even something worth considering since clearing debt is better than a small hit to my credit score. My question is this: should I pay off the entire loan balance since I have the money just sitting in my account waiting to be paid, or is there a good argument to wait to pay it off for some reason? Thanks in advance!Edit: interest rate is 3.76 on half, and 4.29 on the other half. Didnt think to add it since they arent charging me interest yet!  <response>: Check with your financial aid office. The loans may not start accruing interest until six months after you graduate. That gives you some time to find a job and deal with any costs associated with being done with school moving, new apartment, etc. But if you can pay them off before that time, no need to have extra interest charges associated with that money. 