<prompt> Human: I frequently encounter and read about people who graduate from college and it seems as if its the first time they are made awarerealize that they have student loans that require repayment. In many instances those same people go into panic mode because they are facing a large amount of debt and dont know how to handle it. I guess my thought is, where did the breakdown occur between signing the loan documents in order to borrow the money and realizing that those loans had to be paid back? I would like to hear peoples personal experiences in this matter and any suggestions on how the loan process might be improved to better educate and prepare students for when the graduate.  <response>: If you havent worked and lived on your own, you just dont have all the data to understand what repayment will mean to you when the time comes.How much money will you make? What will your costs be for living expenses? You really cant know all of this in advance. A lot of people dont get a job in their field out of school and end up working for near minimum wage. If you have large student loan payments to make, thats going to be a problem.I dont think anyone is blindsided by having to pay back their loans -- theyre blindsided by how large a portion of their income will be required to do so.If your minimum payment is three times as much as you have left over after rent and food, thats going to be tough. 