I need HELP!!! I’m overwhelmed by my student loan debt- it’s unbelievable. I currently owe 380K (that’s without accumulated interest) for medical school (and ONLY medical school, I didn’t have debt before this!). Half my loans are Federal Direct Loans, half are FFEL loans. I’m wondering if I should consolidate the FFEL loans to do IBR and PSLF, or if I should NOT consolidate, and then try to pay down/tackle my higher interest debt first (which I won’t be able to do until after a 4 year residency). I’m worried that the PSLF will not be in place in 10 years where I will be able to go that route, there’s just too much uncertainty…and I also may not end up at a non-profit place of employment. I will definitely do IBR either way, but should I consolidate or not? Consolidation will end up costing me a 6-figure difference in interest over the course of 10 years if the PSLF option falls through…the accumulated interest will be exponential. I would be GRATEFUL for any advice on this situation…and i’m sure there has to be others out there in the same boat!

Hi.  If you consolidate loans at different interest rates together you lose your ability to target higher interest rate debt first.  Some borrowers choose to do more than one consolidation so as to group loans together by interest rate.

A big reason to consolidate is to get FFEL loans into Direct so that they can be eligible for PSLF.  Otherwise, there isn’t a whole lot of reason to do it, except to get them all into one place for ease of administration.