When Brenda Manea received a letter stating that her first student loan payment was due in a month, she thought it was a mistake. “I didn’t actually know that I took a loan out,” says Manea, who graduated from San Diego State University in May 2015. She’d paid for college largely through government grants, and had overlooked a $4,000 loan she’d taken out her freshman year. Brenda Manea But luckily, her monthly payments were relatively small — around $50 — and she’d started her first full-time job at a public relations firm about a week after graduating.