<prompt> Human: throwaway for obvious reasonsI am in a bit of a panic right now after realizing Ive made a terrible rookie mistake after taking a small student loan. I have always been extremely frugal and debt-averse, so this is quite the shock.Thanks to a childhood college fund and scholarships, I completed my undergraduate without any debt. Four years ago, I began graduate school and took on a 10,000 federal student loan. Though I had a savings account of about 5000 and would receive a monthly stipend, I took the loan as a security measure and to later build some semblance of credit. I believed that--after a 100 fee to finance the loan-- I would basically have a 10,000 emergency fund in the bank during grad school. The plan was to simply pay the principal off upon finishing graduate school, without allowing any interest to accrue after graduating-- I was told that interest does not accrue on student loans until you finish college.Fast forward four years and Im finishing up my degree, having lived a very frugal existence and even saving money despite making about 20,0000 per year. With grad school on my mind, I havent thought of the loan in years until this morning. I went to the Federal Student Aid website nslds.ed.gov and created an account. To my dismay, I find that Ive accrued about 2350 outstanding interest in addition to my 10,000 outstanding principal. Im in a panic, because I had originally planned to simply pay off the principal at the end of grad school-- I would have never taken this loan if I thought I would have to pay interest. The address on my loan account was a temporary address from years ago and I have never received any postal mail or email regarding these federal loans. I guess I just assumed they had my current address since I pay taxes and work at a state university. Its now a Sunday, so I plan to call tomorrow but I need to know where to begin. Am I misinterpreting this or did I just blow 2500 for an unnecessary safety cushion? I have the money in my savings and can pay off the debt immediately, if necessary. Is there any chance this is just deferred interest that I can avoid by paying the principal back in full? I thought I knew what I was doing, but apparently Ive made an idiotic rookie mistake. Im confused because the scheduled start of repayment isnt until the end of this year, yet the interest has accrued even though the loan status indicates I am in a grace period. Please let me know where I should go from here and thank you for any help. Loan Information Direct Stafford Unsubsidized Loan: 10,000 Loan Date: 112012 Outstanding Principal: 10,000 as of 6302016 Outstanding Interest: 2,353 as of 6302016 Interest Rate: 6.80 FIXEDDisbursements 03262013 3,334 IN GRACE PERIOD 06122016 01082013 3,333 LOAN ORIGINATED 11122012 11122012 3,333Other Info Scheduled Start of Repayment: 12122016 Next Payment Due Date: 01142020 Loan Period Begin Date: 09242012 Loan Period End Date: 06142013The website records my enrollment status as less than half time, effective 62016.. I have been 0.4 FTE as a graduate teaching assistant while in grad school, in case this is relevant info.EDIT: formatting  <response>: Hi there, to my knowledge unsubsidized loans do accrue interest while you are in schoolas soon as it is taken out. Subsidized loans are loans that the government pays all interest on while you are in school. It is never a good idea to take out a student loan just to build credit or if you dont really need it. If you have the money, I would pay it back asap. That being said, in the grand scheme of things, 12k in student loans is not that awful and should be easily payable once you graduate grad school and make a good salary. 