or do I use that extra money to pay off student loans early?  

For example, landlords  focusing on Section 8, low income or students (without much credit history)  may lean off the credit (which is likely to be lower/nonexistant and use the cosigner and focus on government portion of check) but focus more on another ingredient, like criminal background and rental history. 

They said if turned out bad, at least you had somebody's shoulder to cry on. 

@Micah Cook depending on what your next step in life is, if it is college be very careful about student loan debt.

Scott The Book on Flipping Houses, The Book on Estimating ReHab Costs http://www.biggerpockets.com/flippingbookYou might consider Niche or Specialized Housing like student housing.

The tenant, a graduate student, his wife and 2 small children plan to stay for an additional 2 years.

Animal House" was occupied by many student adults like that ...

We have "built-in" desks under the egress windows in one of our student rentals, so the window can be easily reached.

My strategy would be a duplex as a student landlord.

My friend runs a student housing business, so he's leasing it from me.