First of all, I’d like to thank you for helping out so many people with good advice over the years. I never thought I would be in a situation where my student loan situation has gotten nearly this out of control, however, your advice would be greatly appreciated.

I finished undergrad in biochemistry with a reasonable amount of debt. It was manageable to make monthly payments on my (low) income after graduation. However, after a few years the job turned out to be a dead end and my job was likely to be eliminated soon (the position has since been eliminated, justifying my fears). Job hunting yielded no results, so I decided to attend a master’s program. I’m now nearing the end of my master’s program and have been accepted to several PhD programs. All of which are fully funded and include a modest stipend of between 24-30k. While working on my PhD I will be considered an employee of the university.

This all sounds great, but between undergrad and my master’s I’ve accrued 112,000 in student loan debt. Most of it unsubsidized. I know with absolute certainty that I am done going into debt for school, as the PhD will be completely covered.

My question: Can I go into repayment and use an income-based repayment plan while I am working on my PhD?

Thanks, any advice would be greatly appreciated.

In order for loans to enter a “repayment status,” the grace period on that loan must be expired.  A grace period can be ended early by consolidating the loan or loans, but if a person has loans that have never entered repayment (like for the master’s) and he or she goes straight back to school at least half-time, payments made on those loans will not count towards forgiveness because they won’t be in IBR (or any other repayment plan).  Technically, for those loans that had expired grace periods (like undergrad loans maybe), the borrower could enter repayment, choose IBR, and make payments that counted towards forgiveness while enrolled in school again.  But be aware that “in-school deferment” essentially happens automatically at this point, and would have to be prevented.

Thanks for the info. Definitely things to think about.