I understand that this response is very long-winded and dry, but please understand that it has to be since the subject matter demands a very long-winded and dry response in order to address it thoroughly. The short version is that student loan debt is very unique from other kinds of debt, but it's silly for you to worry about it.
To begin, it seems like your father has a very common generational misunderstanding about debt. Generation X was raised by the Baby Boomers, so they grew up in literally one of the most prosperous times in American history (since we had just won World War II). Since there was so much money floating around, there was a lot of sociological pressure to spend money on things as an earmark of being an adult. That is to say, part of being an adult was getting married, having kids, owning a house, and having nice things. Amongst general greed and other reasons, most (but not all) of Generation X wound up having this crackpot-capitalist philosophy of "We can own all sorts of shit we can't afford and live way above our means, so long as we make minimum payments on everything forever! Everybody else is in debt, so my debt is therefore justified." This is not only a profound misunderstanding of finance but also a very irresponsible one. Namely, the economy has basically tanked, and the resources to justify living life on layaway are no longer available. For this reason, most Generation Xers will have little to no savings, most won't be able to retire or retire on time, most won't be able to afford basic medications they need or will have relatively lousy health insurance, most will end up relying on their kids for support, and most will end up dying in debt that they pass on to their children. I know the letter of the law dictates that you cannot inherit debt, but it still happens in one way or another.
Secondly, you've got to recognize how bad the US economy is right now. It's something like 62% of Americans have less than $1,000 in their savings accounts - one third of this group doesn't even have a savings account. The average college graduate doesn't leave their parents house until they're 26.5 years old, and even then most are working entry-level service jobs. Almost nobody has insurance (or good insurance) and most people our age can't afford to even rent houses.
So long story short, your dad is dumb and entitled about money, but it's not really his fault so don't be too pissed at him. His whole generation is basically a victim of systems beyond their understanding and control when it comes to finance. In point of fact, one of my parents took out a private college loan for $30,000 with an insane interest rate under my name without telling me, and proceeded to spend the money paying off their own irresponsible credit card bills. They constantly bitched at me that I needed to pay this college loan or I would "ruin their credit!" When I found out what really happened, I was absolutely fucking livid. That parent has since done the right thing and assumed the payments on this loan, but when I checked it out independently, I saw they were just making minimum payments on it. That means that they were only paying off the interest, so they've literally spent tens of thousands of dollars over almost ten years and are still in the exact same amount of debt when they started paying it because they're too poor to understand money. My point isn't to play the victim here, but basically to communicate to you that what you're experiencing is a very common problem.
Secondly, when it comes to student loan debt, YOU are responsible for it. I'm not sure where your age falls month wise, but you're eligible to be on your parents' insurance until your 26, at which point you need to pay for insurance or you'll be fined. If your parents are still filing you on their taxes, they're doing it so that they can get money for you, but that also fucks you because you're eligible for more college loans and grants if you're independent. As far as that's all concerned you'll want to talk to an authority in the field like a tax specialist, but I can tell you at least the basics about student loans.
First and foremost, you need to contact the student loan company(ies) and make sure that your parents don't have the ability to make financial decisions for you. I've been considered independent for a very long time so I'm not sure if filing for independence is necessary to accomplish this, but you can't have your dad just taking money away from the federal government in you're name and pulling the whole "FUCK YOU I RAISED YOU THE LEAST YOU CAN DO IS LET ME DESTROY YOUR CREDIT FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE BECAUSE I DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW TO BALANCE A CHECKBOOK OLOLOLOLOLOLO" or whatever his deal is. You've got to realize that taking out a meager $700, depending on your interest rate, could literally turn into tens of thousands of dollars in payments contingent on how long it takes you to pay it.
The main things that are important for you to figure out are....
Is it a single government loan, several government loans, or is it a private loan?
If it's a government loan or loans, is it subsidized?
What's the interest rate your paying?
How much do you owe?
Are you still living with your parents?
And the number one most important question...
...Are you confident that you'll be able to get a job with this degree from this institution?
The last thing you want is to do end up like me - having so much college experience that you're overqualifie for everything but not enough skills employers recognize as valuable to result in being paid well. Scranaldo Trump got an interview for a job that pays $12 an hour. He literally lives in a shed and is constantly high on meth. He's still being considered for more money than I am because, if I were to walk in there, they would either say "WELL THIS EGGHEAD CAN'T MAKE IT IN OUR FIELD WITH HIS PUSSY COMMIE BOOKLERNIN'" or "THIS ASSHOLE IS GOING TO IMMEDIATELY LEAVE BECAUSE HE CLEARLY HAS SO MANY OTHER OPPORTUNITIES HE'S JUST WAITIN' ON." I don't know what your field is, but talk to grads about how much they're making. Find out what the employment rate is in the field is for your major. Is your school known for what it does?
Also be prepared for the school to lie to you. I remember reading (and niavely believing) in a report released by our university that the top 15% of the class in any subject is always employed (I'm in like the top 2% or something and it sure didn't help me or anyone else I know). They also recently released this completely dishonest publication trying to misrepresent the numbers to appear as if education majors are averaging $70 grand a year, which is laughable hogwash.
At the end of the day, the decision is yours, but it's very rough out there and you're going to face a lot of challenges as a twenty-something trying to make a bachelor's degree into a meaningful investment.
As far as the debt is concerned, student loan debt cannot be forgiven by bankruptcy. Doctors used to take out hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical school debts and then file bankruptcy, which would mean they could open a practice and make ungodly amounts of money. Nowadays, if you're delinquent on student loan payments, they will literally take it out of your paycheck. As in, you show up to work, and a lot of it is missing because the government just took it from your employer and you can't really do anything about it.
That all sounds awful! I thought you said not to worry about it?
The good news is that all of this is avoidable, there are options make your debt go away, and there will literally be no negative consequences whatsoever if you just don't ignore your responsibility (which often comes down to not paying any money at all but making a single phone call twice a year). First and foremost, after you graduate, you have a right to opt for deferment, forbearance, and income adjusted repayment. There might be a grace period, but it often comes down to who your loan management company is and if your loan is private or not.
Deferment usually lasts for a year (or two) and is pretty much a grace period where you aren't expected to pay anything back because you most likely won't have a job right out of college. If you have subsidized loans, that means the government will actually pay the interest on these loans while you are on deferment, so they don't get any bigger. Subsidized loans will accrue interest. In most cases, you'll probably have a mix of unsubsidized and subsidized loans.
The second option is forbearance, which is typically used after you've exhausted your deferment. This means that you still aren't expected to pay anything, but your subsidized loans will no longer have the interest paid by the government.
The final option is Income Adjusted Repayment. That means that you send in tax information for how much you work, and the government makes you pay based on what you make. The great news is, for most people, we make so little that the adjusted payment is $0 a month. There's a scale available to see how much you have to make before you're expected to pay, but if I remember properly you have to be making like $32,000 a year.
There's more good news. You should also note that these things all have a time limit. That is to say, if you are eligible for a year's worth of deferment, get a job in six months with an income adjusted rate of zero, you can file paperwork and still retain your final six months of deferment while you pay nothing.
It should also be noted that there are opportunities to have your student loan debt 100% forgiven. Some of them involve odd commitment like doing social work or joining the Peace Corps, but many of them are worth it if you feel like you've gotten your head below water. Similarly, there's lots of dirty tricks to student loans that people don't know about. For example, if your file paperwork proving that income adjusted repayment stays at $0 once a year for like 30 years, the federal government just straight up cancels your debt. Most people are just too lazy to do it.
The the short version is that it's impossible to really escape student debt, but you shouldn't be nervous about it because if you aren't a completely irresponsible choad it won't make a huge difference. Like I said, it typically boils down to an email or phone call one or twice a year. If you're being expected to pay it, it's because you're making enough money to be able to afford to, so it's not the end of the world. The other thing is that, with so many people being in unpayable student loan debt in the United States, I'm seriously getting the impression that they're going to forgive it in less than a generation because there's no way any of us can pay this shit off.
Also, please note that you're going to want to talk to someone in whatever debt repayment agency you're passed onto after you graduate. Don't take all this information as gospel truth of how loans will always be, but it is a basic blueprint of accurate information.
Just for the record, I wrote this long post three times for you but browser kept crashing and not saving it (you're welcome).
