If you are working as an intern immediately after college, have not yet found employment after graduation, or have started an entry level job and don't have enough income to make large college loan payments every month, you can request a deferment from the loan company, which will allow you to repay your student loans at a later time, based on your budget. You will need to provide the company with a breakdown of your monthly income and expenses, in order to prove that repaying the loan at this time is not financially possible. Deferments can last for a few months or a few years, depending on the stipulations the loan company has provided. It is up to you to notify your lender of chances in your income or job status before the deferment term is up in order to renew or terminate the agreement.
Working part-time while in school or immediately following graduation and devoting the job's income to loan repayment is also an option. If you are working to pay the loan back while you are still benefiting from the monies, there will be less to pay back in the years following graduation. Some loan companies also offer students the option of paying only the interest rate while in college, or after graduation when income may be low. Once all payments for the interest rate have been received (which are often lower than the actual loan payments), students can begin repaying the loan.
Setting up an organized budget is also helpful for repaying student loans. Loan repayments should be factored into monthly expenses, the same way that rent/mortgage, utilities, and car payments are. This will increase the likelihood that the loans are repaid on time, and will keep college loans from going into default. Students who have both federal and private loans should work with federal lenders to make repayments manageable, and then work to repay private loans as soon as possible, as late payments could reflect negatively on a student's credit report.