Student loans.

Do your best to only get subsidized loans from the government. They don't accrue interest while you're in school, have more forgiving alternate payment plans, and are, in general, better to deal with.

I wound up with around $20k in student loans after graduating undergrad. I paid back my only unsubsidized loan a few months after it went into repayment since I worked the nine months before grad school and saved up enough so I wouldn't have to worry about payments while in grad school. I've now got around $15k in loans sitting in deferral, and I plan on paying most of it off as soon as I graduate.

Another rule of thumb is to never take out more money in loans than you should get from your first job.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

For anyone not yet in college and thinking about joining the military, this is another reason to go ROTC. You get full tuition, a stipend while in school, and get commissioned above entry-level.

Zeph, you can also look into getting a job on campus. If you get the right kinds (such as desk attending), you're essentially paid to sit there and do homework. If you're in engineering, you can probably find a summer internship that'll pay a few grand over two months, and that could really help you keep your student loans down.

There's nowhere I can't reach.