<prompt> Human: I am currently an MBA student at a relatively good school but not an Ivy, and graduating next spring. I have already accepted a position at a Fortune 10 company, with a good salary slightly over 100k. I have had an excellent credit score my whole life, up until a few months ago. Always over 750. Now its 640 or so. I have 100 payments on time, am not using a significant amount of my available credit although I do have 5k in credit card debt, see below. When I look at my credit report and score report the only negative thing is the amount of new accounts open in the past year. Well they are ALL federal student loan accounts. And there are several loans, because MBAs are fucking expensive. Background on my financial situation: currently we live more or less paycheck to paycheck on my partners 40kyr salary. We also have a toddler and a newborn. Partner has some student loans, I will graduate with about 70k, and then we have the credit card debt. We are doing what we can to chip away at CC, but more importantly to not increase it between now and graduation. We live as frugally as possible with a tight budget. My question: I am graduating in the spring, but in January I will be taking my last installments of student loans. I dont know why there are so many, but each loan is for is for like 6k or so. How can I improve my credit score from this??? Should I consolidate all of my student loans? will that just add another account on my credit report, and close all these others? Will that make things better or worse? When I start my new job we will be moving across country, and we will need a place to rent. We have rented from a family member for the past few years, so cheap rent but no official rental history. I am very nervous about being able to secure a place with a bad credit score.  <response>: To mirror what others are saying: evictions, bankruptcy, and other major issues are more of a red flag to landlords than credit ratings. It may result in a larger security deposit, but Ive never been turned down for a rental, even when my score was in the low 600s. YMMV, depending on the norms of your local market. 