OH I AM WAY TOO EXCITED ABOUT STUDENT LOANS
Two years ago I made
a post about how (if you are a Statesider) you can consolidate your student loans -- and get the payments reduced through Income Based Repayment if you are low-income. And if you pay through Income Based Repayment and work for a not for profit, you can qualify after ten years of payments to get the balance of your loans forgiven.
At the time the PSLF ("Public Service Loan Forgiveness") program was so new they didn't even have paperwork for it yet; you had to sign up for IBR blindly, hoping that PSLF would actually come through. Now they have actual documents that allow you to prove to them that you work for a 501(c)(3) on a yearly basis, so that when your ten years are up, there's a paper trail.
If you go to the Student Aid On The Web
PSLF site, the instructions are MASSIVELY UNCLEAR, but all you need to do is fill out the "Employment Certification For Public Service Loan Forgiveness" linked on the right-hand side in the box, and mail it in as documentation. You can read the other links, but the actual form you need is that third link down.
Now I get to go do a tutorial on all this for about half of my ducklings. Closing fannish websites and opening boring government ones in 3...2...1...