<prompt> Human: So I am 17 years old M, I turn 18 in April 2016. Im in my last year of high school and want to go to University in 2016 to study a Bachelor of Engineering focusing on Software engineering. My first year courses will cost about 8000 nzd. To stay in a hall of residence Accommodation is costs a total of 13,200 nzd for 38 weeks includes room, internet, food, electricity etc and is close too the campus. I really can not decide if I should stay in town. The Student loans in New Zealand are interest free but 21,000 for my first year of a 4 year course seems unreal!?!If I stay at home it is an hour commute into town every day I have class..I dont really want to stay at home because I have 3 siblings and its a small house.. Any advice is appreciated, feel free to ask questions Edit: I would like to add that I have a very good job here at home that gets me around 300 a fortnight or more and is pretty easy. however that is working 5 days a week Edit 2: It looks like flatting would be a more affordablesmarter option. I am astonished how expensive studying is!  <response>: Ive been an engineering student at UoA for the last 4 years.Dont think of a student loan the same way you would other debt. Its not like a credit card loan and its not like an American student loan. The mandatory repayments are linked to your income, so its more like a tax that you have to start paying once you get a real job and can stop paying when youve repaid the cost of your education. 20000 is a scary number, but its money you will only be made to pay back at the rate you are able to.If you complete a software engineering degree and do reasonably well with a few industry connections, your ability to get a decent-paying job will be much better. The job opportunities for software graduates are really good, especially for ones who get decent grades and get relevant industry experience while studying.Doing well in your education and getting good work experience should be your top priorities. If anything could get in the way of that, such as commuting 2 hours ! per day or having to work part time on something unrelated to your study, then the lower risk option is to put that money on your student loan because getting your education is so important and you wont have to worry about your loan if you end up earning below the repayment threshold.That advice is specific to your case because a youre studying in New Zealand, b youre studying in the late 2010s and c youre studying software engineering. Dont take advice too seriously that is meant for people in other countries, that is based on peoples experiences under older student loan systems, or that is meant for people studying less valuable skills such as BScs in psychology, or BAs.Many software graduates move to places like Australia and the US for better job opportunities, and that means they end up paying interest on their student loans. I wouldnt worry about that if I were you. Those jobs are well paying, and if you end up in that position you will be able to afford to pay interest on your loan. Dont take bigger risks just to make your best case scenario slightly better.You have one other safety net available to you, and that is that software jobs dont have strict qualification requirements. If you learn everything in your programme but fail to graduate, you will most likely still be able to get a job in software development. 