If you graduated college last spring, chances are over the winter holidays the government delivered a nice present to your door: your first student loan bill.

According to the Project on Student Debt, college seniors who graduated in 2010 with student loans owed an average of $25,250—the highest level ever recorded—and 2011 debt totals are predicted to be even higher. Additionally, those debt-carrying graduates also faced an impossibly tough job market, as unemployment for new college graduates hovered around 9% for most of the year. All of this means there are likely many more people this year feeling stressed out about student loans and overwhelmed by debt (or just plain broke) than at any other time in recent memory. If you’re one of them, here are five things you should know.