Are you ready to deal with credit, insurance, student loan payments and the jolt from your first electric bill?
The summer after I graduated from high school, I expressed my enthusiasm for starting college to a co-worker, who was a student at the university I would attend.
For most young people, college is the last phase in life in which someone else is paying the bills.
From negotiating a lease to the heart attack of auto insurance rates, there's a host of new experiences awaiting them, and some situations for which they're totally unprepared.
Bankrate.com asked financial experts for their lists of the top 10 financial surprises faced by college graduates and suggestions on navigating in the real world.
Groceries, the cable bill, Internet access, car maintenance, commuting costs -- it all adds up.
"Everybody thinks they will have a big apartment, beautifully furnished.
One significant resource that many students don't take advantage of is the alumni in the city in which they will live.
They don't realize the cost of insuring that car.
Nellie Mae, a student loan provider, reports on its 2002 survey that undergraduate college students who used credit cards to pay for part of their education have a median balance of $3,400 on their credit card.
Student loans don't go away Sherri Williams, assistant director of career services at Texas Women's University in Denton, Texas, says students often are surprised by how soon six months passes and they have to start paying on the loans they have taken out.
Another item to remember is that if finances get totally out of control and a graduate decides to declare bankruptcy, everything will be forgiven except student loans.