Credit unions are definitely going to give you the best deal on all kinds of loans in the future -- but they have rules about who can join, so you want to do it while it's easy. The best thing to do is just throw whatever the minimum amount of money is into an account there and then forget about it.

Alumni can still join many (but not all) credit unions online, and a lot of big employers -- including the military -- also have excellent ones. Just get hooked up with one ASAP, preferably one with a lot of people who have excellent credit -- your nerds and scientists are ideal for this purpose. You'll thank me later when you save thousands of dollars!