We have all heard the commercials — “F-R-E-E, that spells free, credit report dot com, baby:” commercials singing out the importance of keeping track of one’s credit score.

To many college students, a credit score is the thing farthest from their minds. With exams, papers, all-nighters and the 20-hours-a-week part-time job, the importance of a credit score goes out the window.

Consumersunion.org says a credit score is “a three-digit number based on a borrower’s bill-paying history and debt profile and statistical information about other borrowers that lenders use to determine the likelihood of certain credit behaviors, including whether you will pay on time.” According to the Web site, your credit score can even affect the amount of interest you have to pay when borrowing money.

As college students, a majority of us still depend on our parents. Reality won’t hit until graduation, and by then it may be too late.

Your credit score doesn’t just affect the loans you apply for, it can reach other aspects of your life.

Even I underestimated the importance of a credit score until I tried to sign my first phone contract with T-Mobile. Because I was a college freshman and had my parents taking care of my bills, I didn’t have a credit score of my own. When I decided on T-Mobile, I was informed that I would have to pay a down payment of $500 in order to sign the contract.

It wasn’t just T-Mobile. Cingular, Verizon, any company I tried to take my business to required a down payment. It didn’t matter that I had a full-time job and the money to pay them right then and there, they depended on the credit score to tell if I would keep up with my payments.

That’s when I decided to do some research. If I was slowly going to take over my own life, I needed to be able to sign contracts, pay my own bills and even apply for a loan at some point.

Vincent Vacco, freshman biological sciences major, said he never thought about his credit score, mostly because his dad still takes care of the finances.

“I signed a power of attorney, so my dad has control over all my funds,” Vacco said.

While that is OK for now, since we still have our parents to help out, it is important to start building up our own credit scores so we are ready to go out into the real world.

Mike Gronli, sophomore psychology and anthropology major, said he believes he doesn’t have a credit score either.

“It’s not something I tend to worry about,” Gronli said.

Whether you believe it is worth worrying about yet, it is something that needs to be addressed before graduating college. Entering the real world offers many challenges, and financial problems should not be one of them. Building up a credit score now, while you still enjoy the comforts of home and your parents help, can help you in the future. Your credit score represents you in the financial world. A good credit score that you begin building up sooner rather than later will allow you to worry about all those other issues after graduation.